Most companies and their brands are now waist-deep in chasing social media trends.
And in doing so, they easily forget about their content pillars, strategy, and main goals. Mistakes, both well-intentioned and not so much, are easily made. And since avoiding them is a lot easier than correcting them, here are 9 mistakes that you as a social media marketer should avoid:
- All specials all the time
- Frequent giveaways
- Lack of a clear call to action
- Restricting posts
- Going on too long
- Take your time responding to feedback
- Sending mixed signals
- Get too comfortable
- Lose yourself in vanity metrics
1. All specials all the time
Everybody likes a deal. But if your tactic is to delight your customers with weekly discounts, you'll hardly build a sustainable community and business.
Instead, come up with a yearly plan of social media posts that will reward various segments of your audience. You can use a holiday calendar to pair these deals with major holidays and causes relevant to your brand.
2. Frequent giveaways
Likewise, everybody likes a little fun. But unless you’re an online game site, endless contests are going to dilute customers’ engagement and take conversion metrics along on the downward spiral.
Try to develop content pillars, and ensure you include various formats of interactive posts to build sustainable engagement, such as:
- Instagram Story Quiz
- Polls
- This or that
- Tag a friend
- Ask me a question
3. Lack of a clear call to action
So you’ve set up a social media channel? Congratulations. But don’t expect customers to look for you.
The first step to a sale is letting people know what you’re selling. In both inbound and outbound way:
- Audit your bios. Do your social media bios clearly state who you are and what you're selling? Do they include a link in bio that takes them to your website or multiple pages?
- Check your copywriting. Is it clear? Do your copies include a clear call to action? Don't let your followers assume what they're supposed to do.
- Revisit your ad budget and ROI. Are you targeting the right audience? Should you increase your budget? Do your ads match the goals? Should you diversify them?
4. Restricting posts
While the first three mistakes might be obvious, this one isn't, and marketers often make it.
Other than checking the visibility of your groups, pages, and profiles, you must ensure your posts are inclusive and easily accessible by everyone.
Alt text on social media isn't just an additional step that will help the algorithm understand your posts, it makes them accessible to people with visual impairment.
The similar goes for video subtitles and captions, except they help people with hearing impairment to enjoy your posts.
5. Going too long
Highly-detailed press releases and long-form videos are great.
But not all social media channels are the right place to post them.
Too much content runs counter to the short attention span the Web encourages. Long messages usually make for short visits. And if you're struggling to increase engagement and watch time, you should ensure your social media content strategy includes more short-form videos and interactive posts.
Use social media channels to capture your target audience's attention while providing enough value to encourage them to seek out the long-form content on your website or YouTube.
6. Take your time responding to feedback
Don’t undervalue feedback on your social media posts and direct messages.
Your followers ask questions when they’re interested. If you’re lucky, they’ll call a CSR. If you’re not so lucky, they’ll just go somewhere else.
And above else - don't ignore the negative feedback. Instead, take some time to craft a message and use this opportunity to connect with the follower in question. Chances are you'll convert them into a new loyal member of your community.
7. Sending mixed signals
There are various types of mixed signals, but all of them reflect on user experience.
For example, a discount from one division or department must mean the same discount from another division or department.
Ensure there’s a way to unify promotions and discounts on a company-wide basis, and take your time to create a cohesive, omnichannel user experience. If you don’t, expect to do a lot of explaining.
Another type of mixed signals comes in the form of inconsistent branding. If your website has one voice and your social media channels are diametrally different, you'll leave your audience confused. And that is something nobody wants. Remember that it's very hard to recover from a bad user experience, especially when it comes to new visitors.
This doesn't mean your presence on various social media channels should be identical. On the contrary! You'll want to tailor your social media content to match the needs of each target audience. And you can do this by creating a content calendar where you'll cover various post types and adjust the messaging for each audience.
Change the tone, not the voice of your brand.
8. Get too comfortable
Once they establish a solid social media presence, some brands assume their work is done. But social media algorithms (and audiences) don't do well with inertia.
Social media algorithms are notorious for abrupt changes, trends keep arising only to meet their sunset in a week or so, and audiences' needs keep evolving. Your social media manager must be ready to adapt the strategy and dedicate at least 20% of their time to experimenting with new formats and content clusters.
9. Lose yourself in vanity metrics
Everybody wants to be liked. But a “like” button isn’t the same as a “purchase” button. Reach and views aren't the same as click-through rates.
Make sure you set measurable goals that actually help you grow your business. Focus on the ROI (return on investment), dig deep into how many website clicks you get from social media posts, track the conversion rate of new visitors. That will help you get the full picture and alert you if you need to change something in your approach.
