Social Media Marketing - What Not to Do!

Social media is flourishing by the year, and how! With the number of active social media users surpassing 4.59 billion, small and large-scale businesses have a unique window of opportunity to employ their resources on social media marketing.

Everybody is on the social web, but why is it that no one follows your account, or you cannot get any traffic on your social profiles? You could be making the following social media mistakes that are limiting your success.

1. 1. Excessive Content:

   It is a belief that the more you post, the more people will see you. That may work for Twitter, but the same does not hold for most social sites. You only have a certain amount of people following you. If you keep posting too much information, they will get worn out, driving them to ignore your content. Try to post no more than once a day.

2. 2. Mediocre Content:

   The important factor is not how much content you produce but rather how useful it is. Your content's effectiveness-rather, than how much of it you are producing-is what matters. Now that you know that you only want to post once daily, make it worthwhile.
   
   Just maintain relevance to your audience's interests, ambitions, and pain points to ensure your material is well received.

3. 3. Not Leveraging Videos:

   Video content is the future. Videos are more popular among digital audiences since they are quick, simple, and painless. Viewers gain a chance to get to know your distinct personality, which builds familiarity and credibility. In comparison to text and image combined, video generates 1,200% higher shares on social media.

   Coupled with the fact that video content is engaging, it has shown a positive return on investment, better product and brand awareness, and increased website traffic and sales.

4. 4. Socials are a Two-Way Street:

   Social media engagement has become an essential component of any marketing plan as social media platforms have evolved to reward true social interactions.

   Maintain an active presence on social media and respond to comments and queries in a way that is appropriate for your business. You can also use social media monitoring to watch what people are saying on social media.

5. 5. Passiveness in the first few hours:

   With social media algorithms, it is necessary to get engagement within the first few hours of posting for better reach. Customers count on you to not only answer but also answer fast. According to research on the social media platform commissioned in 2016, 71% of Twitter users anticipate brand responses within one hour.

6. 6. Not utilizing data:

   Without a strategy and analysis, it is impossible to expect any business to succeed in the modern world. Several research studies and technologies available can give you performance information in real time. For instance, Facebook has "Insights" for pages to provide a range of statistics on the effectiveness of posts on a page.

   You may evaluate the efficacy of your social media marketing campaign with various third-party tools. Before developing a strategy for your campaign, go deeply into that information.

7. 7. Using your stories carelessly:

   Your social media posts and stories lend a hand in molding your brand image. Ensure to leave a positive impression and engage your audience with your posts on all social media platforms. Before posting, you should consider these :

   • If your post is compelling,
   • Does your post interest and provide value to your readers in any way, and,
   • Are all of your posts merely advertisements for your goods and services?

8. 8. Being too formal:

   Customers admire being approached in a more personalized way, making them feel that their problems, inquiries, and purchases are minded.

   If you run a small business, directly respond to client inquiries. And if you run a big company, you might want to spend on a quality chatbot that can respond to client inquiries in an expert yet personalized way.

9. 9. Avoiding criticism:

   Whatever you do, there will always be people with unsolicited and unfavorable things to say. Although many businesses choose to turn a blind eye to it, you should not. Accept the criticism instead, then carefully consider your response. Nike, JetBlue, and Starbucks are a few businesses that excel in handling customer service issues on social media. Responding to criticism makes you look reliable and allows you to be open with your customers and followers.

If you are new to social media marketing, you are bound to make a few blunders here and there. But the more you are aware of the common social media pitfalls, the less likely you will repeat the same mistakes.