What are the most common mistakes businesses make with social media marketing?

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

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

In 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/

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.