These mistakes are common, but costly.
They could cost you your customers, your reputation, and your revenue. In this blog post, I’ll show you what they are and how to fix them.
1. OBSESSING OVER VISIBLE METRICS
A lot of entrepreneurs fall into a common trap. They think a high number of likes = effective social media marketing.
Don’t get me wrong, reach and engagement are important indicators of how well your content resonates with your audience. They can help you build brand awareness, trust, and loyalty.
But they are not the main objective of your social media marketing efforts. Your ultimate goal is to drive traffic to your website, where potential customers can learn more about your products or services, sign up for your email list, or make a purchase.
That’s why you need to optimize your content for clicks, not just likes.
You need to create compelling headlines, clear calls to action, and irresistible offers that entice your followers to click through to your website.
You need to track and measure how much traffic you’re generating from each social media platform, and how well that traffic converts into leads and sales.
You need to test and tweak your content to improve your click-through rate and lower your cost per acquisition.
Remember, social media is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Don’t let vanity metrics distract you from the real purpose of your marketing: to grow your business and make it profitable.
2. NO MARKETING (SOCIAL MEDIA) STRATEGY
Imagine this: You've just started your business and want to grow your brand and reach more customers through social media. You’ve heard that leveraging social media is a great way to connect with your audience and showcase your products or services. So you create accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, and start posting pictures of your product.
Sounds good, right?
Wrong.
If this is how you approach social media, you’re making a mistake.
A mistake that could cost you time, money and reputation.
A mistake that could prevent you from achieving your business goals.
What is this mistake?
You have no marketing strategy.
A marketing strategy is not just a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have for any business that wants to succeed on social media.
A marketing strategy provides a roadmap and direction for your efforts, ensuring that you are aligning your social media activities with your business objectives.
Without a marketing strategy, you’re flying blind.
You’re posting without purpose, without knowing who you’re talking to, what you’re saying, why you’re saying it, or how you’re measuring it.
You’re wasting resources on content that doesn’t resonate with your audience, doesn’t drive engagement, doesn’t generate leads, and doesn’t increase sales.
You’re missing out on the benefits of having a marketing strategy.
Why do you need a marketing strategy?
A marketing strategy can help you achieve the best results from your social media marketing. Here are 6 reasons why having a marketing strategy can make a difference:
It helps you define your goals and establish metrics to track your progress and success.
It helps you identify and research your target audience, their needs, preferences, challenges and pain points.
It helps you choose the right social media channels for your business, based on where your audience hangs out and what kind of content they consume.
It helps you create content that is targeted, compelling and engaging, tailored to each platform and each stage of the buyer’s journey.
It helps you set up a social media calendar to plan and schedule your content in advance, ensuring consistency and quality.
It helps you check on your competitors and learn from their strengths and weaknesses.
How to create a marketing strategy?
Creating a marketing strategy can be a difficult and complicated process, but it doesn’t have to be. You can follow these simple steps to create an effective social media marketing strategy:
Choose goals that align to business objectives. Make sure they are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound).
Learn everything you can about your audience. If you have an existing audience, you can use social media analytics to get insights about who your viewers are, what they want and how they behave. This will help you tailor your message to the right people.
Choose the right social media channels. Focus on the platforms where your audience is most active and where you can showcase your brand in the best possible way. For example: if you’re a photographer, Instagram, Facebook and Flickr are definitely your go-to platforms, but if you’re a Software Engineer, you probably would be better off choosing LinkedIn and GitHub. Don't try to post on every platform!
Create content that is targeted, compelling and engaging. Use different formats (text, images, videos, stories, reels, etc.) and types (educational, inspirational, entertaining, etc.) to attract and retain your audience’s attention.
Set up a social media calendar. Plan and schedule your content ahead of time to save time and ensure consistency. You can achieve great results with simple tools like Google Sheets and the built-in features of each platform, without paying for more advanced options, such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social.
Don’t forget to check on your competitors. Analyze their social media presence, content, engagement and performance to identify gaps and opportunities for your own strategy.
3. NOT TESTING WHAT WORKS
Imagine you run a business and have access to a cheat code that tells you how to perfectly identify your target audience, engage with them effectively, create compelling content, and determine the best time to share it.
Well, guess what? You do have access to such a cheat code. It’s called analyzing social media metrics.
Social media metrics are the numbers that measure the performance of your social media marketing efforts.
They can tell you how many people see your posts, how many people interact with them, how many people visit your website, how many people buy your products, and more.
But social media metrics are not just numbers.
They are insights that can help you make better decisions.
Insights that can tell you what works and what doesn’t.
Insights that can tell you what to do more of and what to do less of.
It gives you access to information that can help you optimize your social media marketing strategy, create content that resonates with your audience, choose platforms that suit your goals, and allocate resources that match your budget.
But analyzing the metrics is not enough.
You also need to act on the information and implement changes.
You need to use the information to improve your social media marketing activities to achieve your business objectives.
Act on it. That's what gives you the power.
Power that can help you increase your reach, engagement, conversions, and loyalty.
Power that can help you grow your business.
So, if you want to unlock the cheat code for social media marketing success, start analyzing social media metrics and act on them accordingly. You’ll be amazed by the results.
4. LACKING AUTHENTICITY
You’ve probably heard it a thousand times: be authentic on social media.
But what does that really mean? And why is it so important for your business success?
Authenticity is not about oversharing or revealing every detail of your personal life.
You don’t need to post a picture of what you had for breakfast today (unless it’s somehow relevant to your brand or your audience).
Authenticity is about showcasing the unique qualities that make your brand relatable and trustworthy.
It’s about showing the people who you are, what you stand for, and why you do what you do.
Simon Sinek, the author of Start With Why, famously said: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”
In other words, people are more likely to connect with your brand and buy from you if they understand and resonate with your purpose, your values, and your story.
But how do you communicate your authenticity on social media? How do you avoid the biggest mistake that many business owners make: being boring, bland, or the worst of them all: fake?
Here are some tips to help you be more authentic on social media:
Know your voice.
Your voice is how you express yourself on social media. It’s the tone, the style, the language, and the personality that you use to communicate with your audience.
Your voice should reflect who you are as a brand and as a person.
It should be consistent across all your platforms and channels. It should also be appropriate for your audience and your industry.
Know your story.
Your story is what makes you unique and memorable.
It’s the journey that led you to where you are today.
It’s the challenges that you faced, the lessons that you learned, the successes that you achieved.
Your story should inspire, educate, or entertain your audience. It should also show them how you can help them solve their problems or achieve their goals.
Be transparent.
Transparency is about being honest and open with your audience.
It’s about admitting your mistakes, sharing your struggles, asking for feedback, and showing gratitude.
Transparency builds trust and credibility with your audience. It also humanizes your brand and makes you more relatable.
Don't pretend to know everything. In fact, sometimes saying “I don’t know” is what gives you more credibility, according to a study by the University of Cambridge.
Be engaging.
Engagement is about creating a two-way conversation with your audience.
It’s about asking questions, answering comments, responding to messages, and joining discussions.
Engagement shows that you care about your audience and that you value their opinions and input. It also helps you build relationships and loyalty with them.
Being authentic on social media is not easy, but it’s worth it. That's how you can stand out from the crowd, attract more followers, and grow your business.
5. IGNORING FEEDBACK
I wish this was obvious, but apparently it’s not. I see so many businesses doing this wrong and I need to address it.
It's probably the biggest mistake you can make, that can cost you customers, reputation, and revenue.
Customer feedback is the lifeblood of any business. It tells you what your customers think, feel, and want from your products and services.
It helps you understand your audience better, allowing you to create more relevant content.
It also gives you an opportunity to show your customers that you care about them and value their opinions.
But if you’re not listening to customer feedback on social media, you’re missing out on all these benefits. Worse, you could be damaging your brand image and losing trust with your customers.
How would you feel if you left a comment, question, or review on a business’s social media page and never got a response?
Or if you saw that the business was ignoring negative feedback and only responding to positive ones?
You’d probably feel frustrated, ignored, and disappointed.
Ignoring customer feedback can harm customer engagement (which has a huge value for companies), because it can reduce customer satisfaction, positive emotions, and trust.
That’s why social media customer feedback is so important. It’s not just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for any business that wants to succeed in the digital age.
This is the end of the article, but hopefully not the end of your social media journey. You can do this!
I’d love to hear from you: what other mistakes do you think businesses should avoid on social media? Let me know in the comments below!
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