Social media is a key component of effective online marketing. Unless you’re selling arrowheads to cavemen, odds are that your target demographic is on social media every day—and most businesses know that. So if you’re on social media already and you’re posting regularly, but you’re not seeing any results from your efforts, you might wonder what you’re doing wrong. Here are 5 common mistakes that social media marketing novices make, and how you can correct the problems.
Always Talking about Yourself
Everybody knows somebody who seems to love talking about themselves. Every conversation with the person is “me, me, me” until you tune them out or just walk away. You know that you don’t like that person, and yet, too many people become that person when they’re marketing on social media. They share only their own blog posts, talk only about their business, and self-promote endlessly. Who wants to engage with someone like that?
So if you’re noticing very little engagement with your posts, take a look and ask yourself how many of them are just about you. If it’s the vast majority, tone down the promotion and try sharing content from other people, or talking about general industry topics instead of just talking about your business.
Not Having a Strategy
You can’t just be on social media and expect it to work for you. You need to have a strategy in place. Who is your audience? What are your goals? What tactics will you use to engage your audience? How frequently do you intend to post to each platform? What platforms will you use?
All of these questions are vital in determining the direction of your social media marketing strategy, and each one needs to be carefully answered before you begin posting.
Ignoring Negative Feedback
It seems like a lot of people online are just there to spread negativity. In your personal life, it’s okay to ignore those people. But in your professional life, if you see any negativity directed at your business, you need to respond to it—and quickly. Ignoring negative posts or messages can quickly snowball into a crisis for your online reputation.
So when you see a post or message with criticism for your company, answer it as quickly as possible in a polite manner. But don’t just give a blanket apology. Your online audience wants to see you taking actions to rectify a bad situation. So engage with the person, and ask how you can fix the problem for them.
Spreading Yourself Too Thin
When you’re just starting out with social media marketing, you might feel like you have to jump on every platform out there. This isn’t true. Ask yourself where your target audience is likely engaging the most and start there. For B2C businesses, Twitter is a good platform to use. For B2B companies, LinkedIn is more effective. Facebook is a tried-and-true platform that works well for most companies.
Start out on just one or two platforms, and offer consistent, quality content there. Once you’re sure you can offer the same high-quality content elsewhere, you can begin to branch out.
Not Having a Voice Elsewhere
Your social media profile can’t be the only online voice your company has. You need to have a presence elsewhere, even if it’s just on your own blog. Look for opportunities to engage, write, and speak about your area of expertise in other places on the internet.
For example, look at social media influencer and business advisor Tai Lopez. His internet presence is widespread. Not only is he active on virtually every social media platform, but he also writes for websites like Fortune.com, has his own online blog, and hosts a daily podcast. This type of widespread influence allows you to establish your online voice and gives you fresh content to share on social media every day.
So if your social media marketing isn’t paying off, ask yourself if you’re making any of the mistakes described above, and take measures to correct it.
