Social media is, for better or worse, the future of our communication. However, social media isn’t just a platform to talk to friends. It is a constant echo chamber of social marketing, never before has it been so easy for companies to interact with their audience, but likewise, it’s never been so easy to mess up and lose customers.
The ultimate goal for creating a successful social media presence is to generate sales and leads, but it is a lot more nuanced than that. Building your audience base, driving clicks to your website, bolstering community engagement, increasing your brand awareness and last but not least, improving (hopefully) your brand image — Oh, we have a blog for that too right here — There are a few common mistakes brands make on social media that make us wince every time. If you want to avoid these mistakes then read on!
Different platform? Different content!
The first mistake we commonly see is brands not changing their content depending on what social media platform they are using. Facebook is different to Twitter, Twitter is different to Instagram, Instagram is diff – i think you get the picture. In short, make sure you alter content and make it relevant to the site. LinkedIn is a lot more professional than Instagram etc. Most of these social media accounts you can take the casual approach, trying to communicate with your audience as you would a friend almost. Whereas with LinkedIn you have to remain professional and articulate at all times.
Communication is key
Communicate with your customers! Treat your audience like a relationship, they need to feel loved and wanted to stay committed to you. If a customer makes a comment to/about your company on social media, whether its praise or criticism, do your best to respond. This not only makes the customer feel like they are communicating with your brand, but it also shows other customers you are willing to engage in conversation, therefore increasing user interactivity.
Don’t be a bore!
There is nothing worse than reading a robotic social media post, it completely turns away the customer. You are speaking to people, and most importantly, you are a person too. Your audience wants to see the person behind the brand. Give your post a bit of humour, a bit of character. What sounds better? “We are glad to announce we are now selling our tickets for our Summer event” or “Stop what you’re doing! Stamp your ticket to the biggest party of the Summer now.” Both get across the same message, but one is enticing the audience to click, one is simply informing. People would only interact with the former if they’re already interested in whatever event is taking place; whereas the latter would do a good job of intriguing people who were not otherwise interested.
Don’t go overboard on the automation.
Platforms like Buffer and Hootsuite are a great way to keep on top of your social media posts, however, it can become more of a problem than a tool if you rely on them too much. It is not unheard of for some of the most used platforms to slip up and not send out a post, there you are in bed thinking everything is being taken care of by a robot, then you come into the office the next day to realise your post has not been uploaded — disaster! It’s also very easy to make a mistake whilst mass scheduling, setting a tweet to go out on an incorrect date can make your brand look a little silly. So by all means use these tools to your advantage , but limit your dependability on them.
Never forget about YouTube
When we mention social media, people often forget about one of the most influential platforms of all; YouTube. Because it is a video sharing site instead of the more regular news-feed sites like Facebook and Twitter, it is often not grouped in the same category. According to Global Media Insight, YouTube is the second most popular social media website in the world, so use it! It is great for building a community, showing off your brand’s personality and communicating with your audience. It is the ideal place to share how-to videos and reach a younger demographic, although it has a broad scope when it comes to its user-base.
Remember to analyse & Strategise
Social media marketing is a great way to determine what does and doesn’t work as it is so easy to analyse the data. A lot of the social media networks offer basic analytics themselves, but you can take it one step further with analytic tools like Sprout Social and HubSpot. So what do you get out of analysing your social media accounts? Well, for a start you can determine what posts from your account are performing well and which ones aren’t quite connecting with your audience. They also show you what social media platforms are your best, most companies focus on a specific social media site, so if you find your posts performing better on Facebook, you can take it as a sign that you may need to switch up your strategy on other sites; but it also means that your Facebook audience might just be your forte.
Make sure you’re keeping up with the trends
New social media platforms come in and out of our lives throughout the decades, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were the trailblazers; but you may remember sites like MySpace, Bebo, Vine. It is difficult to establish which sites are going to stay for the long run, at times it looked like the three deceased platforms (rip) were here to stay. However, it doesn’t actually matter too much, whatever is popular at the time is where you need to be focusing your attention. TikTok is huge at the moment, there’s no saying it will still be in the mainstream in ten years time, but if you can build a good following there whilst it’s around, even if it fades into irrelevancy, the audience you have garnered will move with you to other platforms. Use the trendy sites and follow the crowd!
Add some Gloss to your social media
These are just some tips and some of the most common social media marketing mistakes we see on a day-to-day basis but there are more you need to be wary of. If you have questions about social media marketing, do not hesitate to get in touch with us here by filling out the contact form on the right. Then just wait for one of our social media experts to get back in touch with you as soon as they can.
