As someone who has worked as a digital marketer for years, it pains me to see businesses and healthcare providers who struggle to get results on social media because they keep making the same mistakes over and over again. They may seem like minor mistakes, but they can cost you reach, engagement, and even followers.
Here are seven social media marketing mistakes you need to avoid.
Buying followers
Having a massive following on social media is impressive. You might be tempted to buy followers, especially if you’re struggling to gain online traction, but please don’t. Why? Because purchased followers are likely bots and inactive accounts.
What’s the point of having 10,000 followers when no one even reads or engages with your post? Plus, Instagram recognizes and purges fake accounts. So buying followers is nothing but a waste of money.
Not having a social media marketing plan
Doing social media marketing without a plan is like driving a car without knowing where you want to go. The last thing you want to spend countless hours creating content without a clear objective.
So ask yourself, what do you want to achieve?
- Is it to generate leads?
- Is it to increase brand awareness?
- Is it to increase the engagement rate?
Having a clear vision of what you want to accomplish will be easier for you to measure results. Thus, allowing you to create a concrete plan of action to outline what you want to achieve.
Being boring
There are more than 8.9 million posts per day on Instagram alone. With millions of posts being published every day, it can be easy to get lost in the noise.
If you want to stand out from the competition, you need to be different. Use different content types. Share videos, visually appealing images, and mix them up with plain texts.
Keep your images and videos as high quality as possible. Most importantly, try to make your captions compelling while adding value to your audience.
Being on all social media platforms
New social media platforms pop up almost every day. Most business owners try to open an account on different social media platforms, hoping it would help them reach a wider audience. Sure, it can help increase your reach, but is it worth your time?
The key is to identify which social platform your audience uses the most and then focus your time and effort into engaging your target audience. The last thing you want is to spread yourself thin across too many platforms.
Focusing on quantity over quality
Social Media Week recommends posting on social media 5-10 times a week to increase engagement. That means you need to post at least one post a day to get results.
But here’s the thing… Just because you’re posting regularly, it doesn’t mean you’ll get positive results. If you want to increase your engagement rate, focus on publishing your quality content rather than the number of posts.
It doesn’t matter if you publish posts five times a week, as long your audience finds them interesting and valuable.
Failing to engage with your followers
So you regularly post content on social media. That’s great! But the question is, do you engage with your followers?
Social media is a two-way engagement platform. You can’t just post content and then leave. We know creating high-quality posts can be time-consuming, but you also need to make time to engage with your followers.
Ask questions. If someone asks a question, answer them. Interact with people who comment on your post. Showing your followers there’s a human behind your page goes a long way in building a relationship with your audience.
Deleting negative comments
Negative comments are unavoidable. At some point, you’ll come across a dissatisfied client or someone who misunderstands your message.
It can be tempting to delete negative comments on social media, but please resist the urge to do so. Why? It can imply that you don’t care about the person’s feelings, giving them enough reason to dislike your brand.
The first step to resolving a conflict is to apologize sincerely. Then, invite the commenter to send you a private message so you can deal with their problem privately. Use this as an opportunity to make the situation right.
Final thoughts
We all make mistakes, and sometimes, we aren’t even aware of them. They may seem like minor mistakes, but they can negatively affect your business in the long run. The first step is to become aware of these mistakes.
If you need help with social media marketing, please feel free to reach out to us for a free 30-minute consultation call. We can help you create a social media strategy to help you reach your prospects online.
