5 Critical Social Media Marketing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
Social media is a powerful marketing tool if used right
Social media has made it easier than ever to reach out to your demographic and build a strong sense of brand loyalty among them. However, social media marketing is different from traditional marketing, and some mistakes can kill your campaign almost overnight. Here’s a look at five of the worst social media marketing mistakes and how to avoid them.
1. Selling on Social Media
While you may be eager to monetize your social media followers, you have to remember that being sold to isn’t why people get on social media. Stay away from “hard sell” copy and instead focus more on branding, engagement, and credibility.
2. Feeding the Trolls
The more followers you have on social media, the more trolls you’re going to have as well. Trolls are attention seekers who will make disruptive, harassing, and rude posts for their own amusement. The best way to deal with them is to block them and move on. Don’t engage with them or acknowledge them, since that’s just giving them the attention they crave and will encourage other trolls to harass you.
3. Not Contextualizing Your Offers
Selling on social media is a no-go, but you still have to get your followers into your sales funnel. Special offers are a great way to do this, but you have to present them in a certain way. Just throwing out a 25% discount on Twitter will still seem salesy, even if it benefits your followers.
Instead, present your special offers in the context of thanking your followers for being so awesome. Make it about them so that they feel rewarded for being a follower.
4. Not Focusing on Engagement
The great thing about social media marketing is that it allows for a two-way conversation. However, many businesses forget this and treat their social media marketing efforts like a one-way street.
You can avoid this problem by focusing more heavily on engagement with your followers. There are many ways to do this, such as polls, contests, videos, and more. If you make your followers feel like they’re a part of your brand, you’ll make more money off of them.
5. Not Having a Brand Personality
When it comes to branding, a common mistake is focusing on “what” your brand is, not “who” it is. Your brand should have a brand personality that connects with your demographic. On social media, this is extremely important. If your brand comes across as a faceless and emotionless corporate entity, no one will want to engage with it.
Pick Your Social Media Platforms Wisely
Social media is a powerful branding and marketing tool. However, this doesn’t mean that you should try and be on every platform available. Different demographics prefer different platforms. Do your research, find out where your demographic is, and set up your accounts there.
Also, make sure that you’re aware of the rules regarding social media marketing on each platform when you create your account. Getting your account banned because you didn’t understand the rules is another mistake you want to avoid.
In the end, social media marketing will produce a positive ROI (return on investment) if done right, and you focus on the branding aspect of it. Just remember that social media marketing is a slow-burn form of marketing, so you won’t be seeing your revenue skyrocketing overnight. Build up your followers, make them feel like a part of your brand, and gradually move them into your sales funnel. If you can do that, then you’ll find plenty of social media marketing success!
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