Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid While Making A Social Media Strategy
Social media is all about trial and error! You never know what could work for a social media marketing strategy or promotion. A thoroughly worked out social media marketing strategy might fail, while randomly posted social media content could create ripples throughout the internet. That being said, certain practices should NEVER be a part of your social media marketing plan. Here are the most common (stupid, to be honest!) mistakes to avoid on social media. Why stupid? For the last decade, social media has been one of the best tools for brands to promote their products and services. If a brand is still harping on the same social media mistakes, it is time to stop them. Therefore, it is imperative to avoid these mistakes. Read on to know more!
The Checklist of Mistakes to Avoid for Social Media Marketing Strategies
1. Being Too Salesy, Always!
If you keep on posting on social media platforms simply promoting your services and products, you will have a hard time getting any traction. People don’t care how good your products or services are. The only thing your audience will care about is how are you going to solve their problem. Focus on sharing a lifestyle, especially the lifestyle of the target audience. Their pain points and challenges can make relatable and funny content. The more authentic your content is, the higher engagement it will generate.
2. Buying Followers
If you are a small business owner and want to establish a social media presence, you might tend to buy followers. Buying followers doesn’t cost much, and you can have thousands of them overnight. However, the problem is that buying followers is like a bad cheque. You are promised something of value, but in reality, there is nothing. You might get a boost in followers, but these followers will not help you in the long run. They are mostly bot accounts, and they will not engage, share, or promote your content. Also, it will skew your data, making it more difficult to know what strategies are working and which are not. When it comes to avoiding mistakes on social media, this is one of the most dangerous and tempting mistakes to avoid.
3. Retweeting Too Often and Tweeting the Same Thing
When a user lands on your Twitter profile, they must have a good idea of what your business is about and what they should expect from you. If your page is mainly about retweets, it will make things difficult for them to understand. The same thing happens when you repeatedly tweet about the same services. Imagine how it would feel if you stepped into a store and saw the same item displayed everywhere.
When you feel that there is nothing to explore, you lose interest quickly and walk out. You must think of your Twitter page as your store. The more variety you have, the more opportunities you have to attract your audience. This offers them something to stick around. Therefore, too many retweets or tweets of the same thing are significant mistakes to avoid on social media.
Also Read: What Is the Marketing Strategy of Amul, India’s Most Loved Brand? – A Case Study
Yes, it is valuable to repurpose high-purposing content; the objective is to spread it out over a long period so that it stays fresh every time. Also, try to find fresh angles to offer new life to your content.
4. Using the Wrong Images Sizes and Video Specs
When you put effort into creating custom social media videos or images for your audience, the last thing you want is for them to be posted blurry, poorly cropped, or unplayable. Avoiding this social media mistake is crucial. It is a challenging issue for small businesses because no two platforms have the same creative specification requirements.
Also, with photo and video-based content, it is crucial to finetune and edit. Being a busy business owner, you probably feel that you don’t have a ton of time to spend on editing social content. Clean and clear content will make your business stand out in saturated social spaces. Make your social media editing easier by knowing what to check.
Here are a few things to take care of:
- Copy – Are the captions clear and free of typos or grammatical errors?
- Image and video quality – Are the images clear and cropped correctly? Is the video loading quickly? Is the transition smooth?
- Branding and Purpose – Is the post connecting back to the social media goals? Is it clear that the post belongs to the brand? Does the voice and tone of the post align with the brand?
5. Removing Negative Comments
Negative comments are a part of the social image of every brand. There will be unsatisfied customers or a frustrated follower somewhere! They will land in your comments section. When it comes to mistakes to avoid on social media, you should never delete all the negative social comments. To protect your brand’s image, you might want to delete all negative comments altogether, but it will be better if you can have a response to your disgruntled followers. It might work in your favour. Responding to the negative comments will show your audience that you don’t shy away from difficult conversations. Also, it shows other customers that you take customer issues seriously.
6. Posting Too Often or Too Little
It is crucial to have a consistent posting schedule. Not having a social media schedule is a critical mistake to avoid on social media. When you post too little, your brand will come across as unexciting – making your audience think you are not worthy of being followed. Also, posting too frequently would be overkill. It would fatigue your audience. Therefore, it is crucial to strike a balance for a posting frequency that is just right. Also, remember that it should be different for each platform.
7. Not Rewarding Your Audience for Interacting with You
In any social media marketing strategy, one of the most common mistakes to avoid is not to award your audience enough to interact with you. To drive social media engagement, you will ask your audience to comment on the posts and tag your businesses in stories, direct messages, and more. However, you will notice that your followers are not interacting with your business without knowing what is in it for them. It is crucial to incentivize your followers to comment or tag back to your business by turning your engagement posts. Create social media contests or giveaways. Also, show appreciation for any type of engagement that you get by responding to as many comments as possible and repost any tags that you get.
8. Being Too Rigid with Your Budget
If you stick to a specific social media advertising budget, you shall limit your results. The social media advertising performance will fluctuate. Thus, you should adjust your budget accordingly. A mistake to avoid on social media is to stick to a specific budget. A lot of brands do that!
Read More: KFC’s Marketing Strategy – Actions that Led to KFC’s Success
Regarding social media ad budget, there is no right or wrong answer because every business’s situation is different. A major social media blunder is to think that you should limit your budget to stick to the overall budget of your business. Instead, a better idea is to reevaluate your budget quarterly or monthly to see how you can adjust or move around the funds considering the social media metrics.
9. Don’t Have a Personal Account Instead of a Business One
This is another mistake to avoid on social media, especially on social media platforms like Instagram. You are not doing Instagram right if you don’t have a business account. If you have any doubts about having a personal or a business account, here is the reason to have a business account: Analytics!
When you have a business account, you shall have access to a slew of data you wouldn’t otherwise know. Right from how the users are finding you to which posts are driving higher traffic, everything is available through analytics. This will help you build a better social media marketing strategy and get insights into what works with your target audience and what doesn’t.
10. Sharing Low-Quality Content
When it is about avoiding mistakes on social media, it is crucial to remember that sharing low-quality content is nothing short of a blunder. Yes, the visuals are still the king, but to be successful on the platform, you have to create high-quality content. For instance, if you check Twitter, it is a text-based platform. From threads to retweets, the primary feed is designed to prioritize written content. The same applies to Instagram as well. Visuals are everywhere on the platform. If yours is not up to par, you shall struggle to retain the attention of the audience.
In Conclusion
So, these are the top 10 mistakes to avoid in social media marketing. Knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what you should do. The above list is a good place to start and keep you on the right track. If you are working on a social media strategy, it is crucial to remember the above factors to avoid social media mistakes. Take a few moments to think before you hit the post button!
