5 Common Social Media Mistakes Your Business May Be Making

We are living in the social age, where we all have the power and the potential to have our opinion heard by millions. With every social media post you create, you’re impacting your image and contributing to your social print. When it comes to social media blunders there is no shortage, and spotting the mistakes of others is undoubtedly easy. Errors on social media can be fatal.

There are hundreds of articles promoting what you should include in your social media strategy, with tips, tricks, and hacks for you to adopt. But what about the things that you shouldn’t be doing? The most common tactics are the most ineffective and could be damaging your brand significantly. Here are five common social media mistakes your business may be making:

1. Spreading Yourself Too Thin

So, you have all your social media accounts up and running, and you have discovered the art of scheduling tweets. You’re building a community of followers, all interested in what you have to say. But you are posting the same content across all platforms. Sure, it saves time linking posts together with just a click of a button, but it’s a good way to loose followers too. Why would somebody follow you across multiple platforms when they’re acquiring the same churned out content?

You should modify each post to suit the culture and audience of each platform. Once successfully doing so, your audience will begin to engage in the content and, the likelihood of the post reaching them will increase. However, although it’s good to be committed on each platform, it’s better to do one platform successfully than to spread yourself thin across many platforms. When you cannot be everywhere at once, be selective and give it your all.

2. Refusing To Be Social

No one likes shuffling through spam in order to get to the information they require. Brands forget this, and begin alienating their following by bombarding them with advertisements. Sure, the odd reminder for an upcoming promotion or event is fine, but you should be striving to give customers information which will benefit their lives.

In social media, it’s important that you give more than what you receive. Customers expect the same service they would receive in person. Your social profiles should be a seamless experience without the same repetitive disruption of spammy ads. Personalise your posts, make them relevant and, make them engaging.

3. Not Understanding Your Audience

Each social media platform is different and boasts it’s own unique audience. If you’re looking to utilise your social media strategy, you must understand each platform. What works for one platform may not work for another. Photographs receive the most engagement when published on Facebook, whereas hashtag campaigns flourish on Twitter.

The post you share will begin to paint a picture of your brand. If you’re sharing posts on personal worries, controversial issues or displaying bad grammar, you’re giving yourself a bad online reputation. You must make sure the posts you share maintain an overall balance of your business objectives.

4. Actively Sharing Like-Bait

“If you don’t share this post in the next three seconds..”, unfortunately we have all stumbled across like-bait. Like-bait is very much like click-bait, the practice of using controversial headlines to stir-up some social media attention. The problem with like-bait is it rarely provides the reader with any new or insightful information, and has nothing to do with the objectives of that business.

Like-bait is ultimately spam. Businesses post like-bait in order to boost their likes, shares and following numbers. Businesses who follow this practice are not receiving any proper engagement, as their following are engaging with the nature of the post and not that brand per say. The best example of like-bait is the “like, share, comment or ignore” posts aimlessly floating around on Facebook.

5. Not Measuring The ROI

Social media is an inexpensive way to market your brand. However, if you begin to measure the hours you’re investing in planning, engaging and executing your strategy, you’ll soon see that the costing adds up.

People will follow your brand on social media because they like you, what you’re saying and what you stand for. They’re engaged and, this is great. But if you begin to post the wrong topics, you will see this bond break. It’s hard to measure the return on social media, but if you measure the reach and engagement levels, you will soon see what is working for your business and what isn’t. An engaged follower will eventually turn to a sale lead.

This article by Dawn Ellis was originally published on Social Media Today.