It’s not easy to market your brand on social media. With high volumes of content shared every minute, challenging algorithm updates and the pressure to make your brand stand out, it can be easy to make mistakes. To help you navigate through the ever-changing social landscape, we’ve compiled six social media mistakes you should avoid.
1. Oversharing Your Content
Sharing your content multiple times a day per social media platform doesn't necessarily mean your content will be seen by your audience, nor is it necessarily the right strategy. In fact, an overload of content by one brand in a user's newsfeed may not be the ideal experience.
Before you post to social media, consider quality over quantity. Review your social media platforms individually and determine how many posts per day per channel make sense for the results you are trying to achieve. It can make a bigger impact for your brand to post to your Facebook Business Page once a day with an engaging message that resonates well with your audience, rather than sharing multiple blog posts or images that don't have an effective strategy or purpose.
2. Sharing the Same Content Across All Platforms
You shouldn't utilize a "one size fits all" approach when it comes to social media. Your audience may have different intent when scrolling through their Twitter news feed vs. LinkedIn. That being said, your content should be created around the intent of your audience on each of those platforms. Don't assume your audience will consume and interact with content the same on one platform as they will on another.
Rather than posting the same message across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., consider how that content will be valuable to your audience on each of those platforms and how you can create a unique message depending on which platform you choose. If you share without the right social media strategy in place, you could put your brand in a position for ineffective results.
3. Trying to Gain a Presence Everywhere
Just like you shouldn't take one piece of content and post it everywhere, you don't need to try to gain a presence everywhere either. Think about your audience. Where are they spending time online? Which platforms will help you reach your audience most effectively?
Do research and gather insight into your audience's behavior on each of the social platforms before creating new profiles. You will engage more with your audience and align better with your goals if your brand has a strong presence on just a few social media channels, rather than a scarce presence on all.
4. Failing to Engage Your Audience
You may have a presence on the appropriate social media channels to reach your audience, but your success will be limited if you fail to engage your audience. A few ways to maintain engagement with your audience on social media include:
- Using expertise. Show that your brand is a subject-matter expert on topics, trends, and questions your audience cares about.
- Being genuine. Don't just sell to your customers. An audience is more likely to engage with a brand they trust than with a brand they don't feel valued by.
- Asking questions. By prompting a conversation, your brand will be able to better connect with customers and learn from how they interact with your content.
- Listening to your audience. Your audience wants to be heard. Show them you've listened by providing content types your audience enjoys and responds well to.
5. Not Utilizing Social Media Management Tools
Social media management tools can be your best friend. As beneficial as real-time and relevant responses are for a brand, trying to find time to post unique content on each of your social media channels throughout the day can be a daunting task. Utilizing social tools such as Sendible or Hootsuite can assist with scheduling content ahead of time and collecting data to better understand the impact of your social media efforts.
6. Ignoring Social Trends
Though it may not be ideal, your approach to social media marketing is likely to change as often as the social platforms roll out new updates and new trends emerge. The best approach you can take for your brand is to adapt to the changes and adjust your social media strategy accordingly. Learning to work with the updates and find effective methods to still reach your audience can only help bring a long-term return.
Need help understanding which social media tactics are right for your brand? Aztek can help build, maintain and analyze social media marketing campaigns for your business. Contact our team today to learn more.
