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The Most Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes

Every business needs an active social media presence, but not all social media strategies are made equal. Today, I will highlight some of the most common mistakes that businesses make on social media to help you avoid repeating them.

8 common mistakes businesses make on social media

Mistake #1. Failing to understand your audience

Too many businesses get into social media management with the belief that everyone is their audience, or without fully understanding who their audience really is. Not everyone wants to see the same kind of content or will connect with the same kind of content.

For example, if you’re targeting homeowners in your community, it doesn’t make sense to create a post about how to get your security deposit back on a rental home. Figuring out who your audience is will help you create content specifically for them.

Mistake #2. Not establishing a cohesive brand voice

The last thing you want on social media is to post things that are all over the board. Having a cohesive voice on social media will make your brand a lot more recognizable.

This is especially important if there’s more than one person managing your social media presence, as this makes it all too easy to come across as willy-nilly in your posts.

Mistake #3. Stretching yourself too thin

While it’s a good idea to establish a presence on more than one social media platform, it’s a mistake to bite off more than you can chew on social media. It does you no good to have a presence on a platform that you’re not active on or don’t have the time to properly manage.

Before you get started with social media management, determine how much time you have to devote to it every day or every week. If you only have an hour or two to devote to social media management per week, consider limiting yourself to one or two platforms you can devote all of your time to.

Mistake #4. Not taking advantage of user-generated content

Building social proof is one of the biggest benefits of having a social media presence, and one of the best ways to develop social proof is by sharing the organic content users produce about your brand or products

User-generated content includes everything from testimonials and reviews to videos and images of people using your products or benefiting from your services. Learn more about the why and how of harnessing the power of user-generated content by checking out Marketing 360®’s blog.

Mistake #5. Posting the same content on every platform

While it’s true that you should have a cohesive brand voice across every platform that you’re listed on, you shouldn’t recycle content by posting the same thing on every platform.

Most social media users are on more than one platform, and chances are, if someone is following your brand on Facebook, they’re probably also going to follow you on Twitter and Instagram.

Make sure that your strategy across every platform is cohesive, but make it a point to post unique content on each platform.

Mistake #6. Buying followers

When you’re first starting out on social media, you might be tempted to buy followers until you start building your followers organically. After all, you can buy a lot of followers without having to put in a lot of time or spend a lot of money, but you should know that it’s against the policies of every social media platform to do so.

However, it’s also important to note that social media marketing is not just about getting followers, and it could be argued that there’s really no point in having a large following if they’re not actually consumers who might take advantage of what you have to offer, or ever engage with your content.

Mistake #7. Not engaging with your followers

Social media management involves regularly posting and being active, but you’ll be getting a lot less out of it if you treat it like a one-way street. The power of social media lies in its ability to connect businesses with consumers, and the best way to do that is by actually engaging with your customers.

When someone comments on a post, keep the conversation going. When someone writes a review or recommendation about your brand, thank them for taking the time to do so and let them know that you value their feedback.

Mistake #8. Caring about the wrong metrics

Many businesses that use social media get so caught up in the number of followers that they have that they don’t pay attention to the many other metrics that they should be paying attention to.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a lot of followers on social media, but it’s the quality of those followers and how they interact with your brand that will have the biggest impact on your success.

Instead of paying too much attention to followers alone, pay attention to other metrics, like how many followers a post has reached since it went live (post reach), the number of likes your posts get compared to the number of followers you have (applause rate) and the amount of engagement your posts get relative to the number of followers you have (engagement rate).

Establishing a presence on social media is something every business should do, but you also need a great website to point to where people can go to learn more about who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer.

With the Websites 360® website builder, it’s easy to build your own business website, even if you don’t have any coding skills or knowledge to speak of. Get started today by picking the perfect template for your business website.

Originally published on 5/28/20