This topic contains 8 replies, has 9 voices, and was last updated by 
Lisa Sicard 1 day, 11 hours ago.
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What are some common social media marketing mistakes business make and how can I avoid them?
There are a few that come to mind right off the bat.
– Not creating a customer avatar. Everyone is not your client. Unless you know what your customer’s traits to include, demographics, likes and dislikes, where they spend their time online, etc., you are likely to be wasting a lot of time potentially chasing the wrong people.
– Thinking you have to be on all social platforms. What kind of business do you have and where are your customers? There may be 2 Billion people on Facebook, but you may have a visual product that will reach a better audience on Instagram or YouTube. Though it is smart to have at least potentially a personal presence on each platform, you probably don’t want to establish a business presence until you are sure your customers are there.
– Not having a posting strategy. The 80/20 rule applies here. 80% of your content should provide value and only about 20% should be sales. Your goal is to build know, like, and trust in your community.
– Understanding that really social media has evolved into digital marketing and you need a web presence. People start their search for a business through search engines, not social media. They are looking for a solution to their problem, a service, or a product. They may not know your business’s name. You need to create content that will tie into the SEO keywords that will solve their problem. This is a long game and not an overnight process.
– Expanding on my previous point, social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. The likelihood of you creating a viral post is more likely luck than skill, so consistency is key. You have to build know, like, and trust to convert interested parties into customers. Review management via Google My Business, Facebook, and other platforms will build your credibility to outsiders.I should probably write a blog post on this. This was a great question and I hope this gave you some food for thought.
Jim Fuhs
Common mistakes in social media is..
-Asking for the sale before giving the customer a sense of need or want for the service or item you are trying to sell. People put up sale offers on social media with a % off or a buy one get one deal with out giving the customer a sense of urgency or need for the product or service.
-Businesses also forget that now day in age just posting graphic design photos wont get you as far as making videos. Social media is converting more to videos and favor to be viewed over other posts on some social media platforms.
-Learning how to master Facebook and Instagram algorithms for your specific business niche is difficult sometimes but running many $5.00 A-B ads then boosting the better one and shutting down the ones doing bad. Also test and keep logged eventually you will succeed
-Making landing pages & sales funnels are essential for social media marketing. You get the prospect interested with a video related to your industry or a blog/form then you send them through the proper sales steps till the sale.
-Not sending out enough emails or growing their email base.First thing that comes to mind is know that the only mistake is not getting started because you fear making a mistake. Social changes fast and the novice today is an “expert” tomorrow and vice-versa the “expert” can easily become a novice by not staying active.
When Starting out:
1. Have an optimized profile that speaks to the individual you want to connect with. Don’t overlook this step because you’ll grow at a minimum of 2X when having this done correctly. This means clearly defining what you solve. For instance, I share in my book an example of 3 realtors. Once says I’m a realtor (not good), another says I help first time home-buyers buy a home with no money down (better) and the final says: I’m The Naked Realtor, I help first time couples find the perfect community for their comfort (true story).
2. Connect with people who are either influencers and have an audience you’d like. Share their content, comment and be thoughtful. Build a relationship as you would when meeting anyone new. Connect with individuals who your service could be a fit. Again be thoughtful by engaging sincerely with them. If your profile is optimized (step 1) they’ll follow you and engage back if you are thoughtful.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for the business. Too many people waste time and never ask for the business. If you’re a non-for-profit, fine…otherwise don’t be afraid. My preferred method is giving something of value in exchange for an email and then as marketers say “bring the subscriber through your funnel” but thats still sales. Don’t be afraid of sales.
4. Learn the platforms and how each really works. Don’t feel you need to be everywhere, but be somewhere. If you’re b-2-c, Pinterest & Instagram are easy to grow fast. If you’re b-2-b LinkedIn can’t be ignored. Both b2b and b2c can truly benefit from Twitter almost instantly through social listening of people asking for your businesses service/product.
5. Always remember what isn’t measure will not grow. Time is money, so watch your time and don’t assume that because it’s “social” it isn’t costing you something. Make sure you’re seeing results, I see to many businesses not measuring their success or lack of.
6. Reverse engineer your top 5-10 competitors who are “really” crushing it and copy what they’re doing. It’s business, don’t feel you need to recreate the wheel.
7. Turn off Notifications when you’re not on Social. Social can be a distraction also and unless you’re disciplined, it can crush you.
8. It’s never too early to build a following. Even if you’re not ready, start building a community today of like-minded people.
Have Fun ~ Mike
Using too many platforms.There are a lot of social media sites to choose from, and you might be tempted to think that the best strategy is to use all of them on the theory that you’ll be more likely to find your customers than you would if you stuck to just using one or two. The reverse is actually true. It’s important to remember the social aspect of social media. If you’re going to use a site, you have to be engaged and post regularly. You can’t expect people to follow you if you don’t make an effort – and an inactive account is worse than having no account at all.
Failing to post consistently.One of the biggest mistakes companies make on social media is forgetting that sites like Facebook and Twitter are meant to be social, first and foremost. The algorithms used by Facebook and Twitter mean that not everybody will see the content you post. Inconsistent posting will decrease the number of people who see your content and cause you to lose followersIn addition to the excellent recommendations above the two main things are also making sure your social posts appear to come from a human being and are setting the right tone for your business.
As I write in this post: https://aurorameyer.com/2018/06/12/authentic-customer-engagement/
“Social media has become one of the biggest tools for marketing and engaging with customers. It allows a business to contact the people who are buying from them and it allows for conversations to be held in a public way, showing other people that problems can be easily solved. Customers head to social media first when they have a suggestion or an issue, and while there are plenty of ways to contact your customers when they sign up to your services, such as what you can find here, social media is always the first point of contact for new customers. The goal should be driving your customers into a deeper client/customer relationship with you, and helping your customers is the first way that you can get there.”In addition to social posts appearing to come from a real person, don’t forget it’s ok to have a little fun (IF it is a good fit for your business!), as I write in this post: https://aurorameyer.com/2018/04/23/marketing-fun/
“The whole appeal of social media marketing is that it brings personality to products. And, the best way to get your personality across is to develop a fun and lovable persona. Instead of just posting straight up about business matters, aim to have as much fun as possible here if it makes sense for your business.”Finally, to underscore what Richard wrote above, it is vital that you “think about which platforms are right for you and your business goals. If you’re a restaurant or bakery then you may wish to post images products on Instagram or Pinterest, whereas if your business revolves around sharing knowledge and expertise or other soft skills, uploading video tutorials on YouTube or hosting webinars on Google Plus might be a better fit. Do your research.” https://aurorameyer.com/2017/08/01/5166/
Some of the more common mistakes I see on Social Media:
- Hiring a ‘guru’ who is clueless to handle the social media. Dead giveaways: same graphics and posts on multiple accounts they handle, not monitoring the account to reply to questions or comments. Really look at someone’s social media accounts before putting them in charge of YOURS.
- Following your competitors or suppliers and not prospects or clients.
- Not being on the correct social media channel – the one where your clients and prospects are hanging out!
- Not staying on top of trending hashtags that could be good for your business.Social media is different for every business and target market. Make sure your social media is an extension of your brand voice.
First of all, the biggest mistake marketers and brands make is using bygone strategies. Social media marketing is a dynamic area – one which requires you to adapt your strategies in order to make the best use of all platforms.
1. ‘Social media marketing doesn’t work for local businesses’ – that’s not true. A terrific example of that is Google My Business. I recently wrote a post about how small local businesses can make great use of GMB to market themselves locally.
2. Another mistake is not setting a proper target audience for social media ads. If brands don’t create customer personas and figure out ‘who’ they wish to target – their ads aren’t going to do much good.
3. While it may seem like having fake followers can make your brand look popular, eventually, people will figure it out. My advice? Go the ‘small but genuine community’ way.
4. Speaking of community, most brands forget that the primary purpose of social platforms is ‘interaction’. Interaction is the first step to building a great community on social media.
5. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking their team can do it all – finding relevant content, publishing posts at the right time, and extracting data to analyze the results. All these processes take up a lot of time and energy. On the other hand, tools like SocialPilot help their teams implement all these processes by curating content, scheduling posts in advance and providing downloadable analytics reports – within their marketing budget.
Parting advice – Remember, your fans and customers on social media never sleep. They need you to interact with them 24×7. Hence, in 2019, get used to round-the-clock customer support, chatbots, social monitoring etc.
Here are some of the mistakes I’ve seen business making with social media:
1. Pushing out content. They only PUSH OUT their sales pages and offers. They don’t offer anything interesting or provide valuable information.
2. Set it and forget it. They start a social page on a social network and forget about it. I oftentimes see this on Twitter. It’s better to have no page than a blank page. Often I see businesses have their Twitter avatar on their website and when you click to it, they only have tweeted out once. I tell them to USE IT or LOSE IT!
3. No engagement. Many business post and leave on a social network. They never engage with their fans or followers. Others may leave comments on Facebook or tweet them and they don’t respond. The same for Instagram. This is NOT GOOD! Engagement is key today on social media.
4. Mixing up content. Some businesses only share images or links on their social profiles. They should really mix them up with videos, quotes, pictures, etc. Use different types of social media posts to reach your audience.
5. Posting too often. This is a big one on Facebook. Some businesses may post TOO OFTEN. This can lead to fans unliking their page or others turning off notifications from them. Each business is unique and should pay attention to their insights as a guide for posting times and how often to post. (This is almost as bad as never posting!)
6. Share others content in your industry. Don’t be afraid of competitors. If it’s really good content and may be useful to your audience share it and tag others. Tagging is key to generating more engagement on most of the social networks.
7. Don’t try to be everywhere all the time. You or your hired person will burn out.
8. Use a social listening tool. Know when others mention your brand so you can respond quickly. I love Brand24 or Awario.
9. Use a great scheduling tool like Agorapulse. Not only does it help you to schedule your social media but this tool generates reports to help you to better schedule them for the next week or month. I wrote a review here about how to use this tool for your social media.
10. Have some fun with it. Use emoji’s and enjoy posting and engaging with others on social media. If not hire someone who will do it for you. And be sure to check out their own social profiles before you do as Vickie mentioned above.
11. Time Consuming. Social media done right is TIME CONSUMING so if you don’t have someone full time to manage it for you, outsource it.
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