Social media marketing is now one of the most effective ways to market your business. In fact, over 50% of the world’s population now use social media on a regular basis. As such, it is crucial that your business has an online presence. However, there are some common social media marketing mistakes your business must avoid to ensure success. Below are the top 5 mistakes businesses commonly make, and how to avoid them.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is thinking that they can simply just post what they want, when they want. However, there are many key details businesses need to pay attention to when posting online. This is where having a detailed social media plan is important. Ideally, businesses should have at least 30-45 days worth of posts planned out in advance. When planning you must consider the time of day, day of the week, any upcoming holidays, and upcoming product launches. Remember, you want to build excitement around your brand and products. To do so, you must be posting at a time when most of your audience will see it and be able to interact with it. Consider hiring a social media marketing company to help you plan your content.
Many businesses will make the mistake of jumping on irrelevant trends, hoping to go viral. However, this can backfire dramatically, especially if the hashtag is about social, or political issues. Trying to follow trends can come off as cheap, and desperate if they have nothing in common with your business. Remember, you want to showcase your brand and brand message online. Try to stay as authentic as possible, and only use hashtags that are relevant to your brand and products.
This is a common mistake for most new businesses, however, your audience is never everyone, no matter what you sell or offer. As a business, you must determine who exactly your target consumer is for marketing to be effective. To work out who you should be targeting, use your analytics. Social media analytics will show you the age range, gender, and location of your followers and viewers. You can use these details to help build your customer avatar. Also take into consideration, the interests of your consumer. For example, if you sell durable water bottles, you could target users that are interested in fitness, hiking, the gym, extreme sports, etc. Determine who exactly you are designing your products for and then target that consumer demographic.
One of the worst things that businesses online can do is post and ghost. This refers to posting content and never coming back to acknowledge followers’ comments and likes. Whenever your schedule or post content, ensure that someone in your marketing team is online and responding to comments and questions. This doesn’t need to be time-consuming, and you don’t need to respond to all comments, however, you should acknowledge them with a like. However, you should aim to answer all questions, even if you are just directing them to an email address or webpage. Interacting with your followers helps to build trust and shows humanity.
Getting negative feedback is never initially good for business. However, if you respond publically and offer solutions, that feedback is no longer a black mark on your reputation. If you delete, and someone has taken a screenshot, which is then reposted, your reputation will struggle. Nothing really disappears from the internet so ensure you respond to all feedback professionally and quickly. This enables you to take negative feedback and showcase your customer service, while also fixing any issues to avoid negative feedback in the future.
Building a successful online presence isn’t easy, but by avoiding these social media marketing mistakes; it’s a lot simpler! So start creating, planning, and posting content to boost your online reputation and build your business.
