Well, it’s a fact that Social Media Marketing stands at the core of harnessing the power of the online audience to drive traffic and sales for your website and business. A well focused, efficient and targeted social media marketing campaign is at the root of website traffics, brand awareness, and consumer insights.
However it all depends on how you design your social media marketing campaign.
It is this area where most internet marketers make what is known as Social Media Marketing Mistakes.
When you are engulfed in Social Media Marketing Mistakes, you just cannot utilize the edge provided by Social Media Marketing through its high engagement and wide audience reach. Every little message that you post on Social Media reflects on your brand identity. It has a huge impact on your audience so you must be careful with whatever you do on Social Media Sites whether it is creating a Facebook Page or it deals with your Twitter account.
SMM (Social Media Marketing) is an indispensable element in the overall internet marketing mix, but you have to make it count. A blind effort in Social Media Marketing will only lead to your pitfall and could turn out to be detrimental for your brand. Remember that it is nearly impossible to fix a bad online reputation just because you don’t have any control over those who are sharing stories related to your brand.
Here I have come up with 10 Social Media Marketing Mistakes that you should avoid at all costs if you want to leverage the power and edge provided by Social Media Marketing. If you want to utilize the full potential of Social Media make sure, you don’t make these 10 Social Media Marketing Mistakes. By avoiding these Social Media Marketing Mistakes, you stand a great chance for increasing ROI and many more new opportunities from your social media accounts.
10 Social Media Marketing Mistakes
Mistake #1: No Social Media Marketing Strategy
Most Social Media Marketing Efforts fail because you don’t have a clearly defined Social Media Marketing Strategy working for them. At the end of the day, you want that the messages that you are putting through social media channels have their effectiveness on the users for which they are intended.
Let’s face this blunt fact.
Social Media users are being bombarded with messages and information every second of the day. Your message has to cut through this clutter and reach the target audience. Moreover, your message should be able to make a deep impact on its target users so that you stand to gain from your social media marketing efforts. This can only happen when you have a clear cut Social Media Marketing Strategy working for you.
A Social Media Marketing Strategy sets clearly defined and measurable goals. It also includes a clear social media policy and lays out a path for a clearly set content calendar. Moreover, you should not be using the same social media marketing strategy for every social media channel. The audience on different social media sites varies and so does the content you should be sharing.
Mistake #2: An incomplete Social Media Bio
An incomplete Social Media Bio is detrimental to your Social Media Marketing Efforts. With incomplete Social Media Bio, you stand to lose on your credibility with your online audience and go onto miss out many leads that might have come your way.
So what you have to do in order to complete your social media bio?
Well, make sure to include an excerpt about your business. Include a piece of writing which clearly enumerates what your business is all about. Then make sure to include where your business is located and also don’t forget to include your website address. These are few of the things which you must do in order to complete your Social Media Bio.
Mistake #3: Focusing on number of fans rather than on quality
Although Social Media is a number game and you adopt social media channels for the prime reason that you want to have a large pool of fan following. You go onto make people like your Facebook page and so on: however, that should not be the only reason that should drive you towards Social Media Marketing Channels. Focusing only on the number of fans you are invariably making a grave Social Media Marketing Mistake. Instead focusing on quality of followers you stand to build a powerful marketing resource for yourself that pays you time and again. So just don’t focus on increasing your followers rather you should come up with a viable strategy that helps you build on the quality of your followers.
Mistake #4: Making Social Media a One-Way Street
Social Media Marketing Channels provides you an opportunity to connect with your prospective customers. It’s a channel through which you can build a strong relationship with your prospective customers. And this does not happen when you make social media a one-way street. Your audiences are let off when they see continuous push marketing efforts in their newsfeed. Instead, you should be focusing on building relationship with your target audience and this can only happen when you realize that Social Media is a two-way street where you get an opportunity to connect with your audience and deepen the relationship with them. Your focus should be on educating rather than on selling then only you would be successful in engaging your audience.
Mistake #5: Audience’s messages Ignored
Social Media is by far one of the most powerful channels for communication. It facilitates conversations between suppliers and consumers. Through Social Media, you can establish fast and accessible communication with your target audience.
However, there are many organizations which do not take advantage of this particular characteristic of Social Media Channels.
If you are also one of those who tend who ignore your audiences messages, then you are making a costly mistake. Research reveals that there are only few companies which take audience comments and complaints seriously.
However, doing this can be detrimental to your brand image because audiences view issue handling through social media as quality of support.
If you ignore your audience’s messages, your audiences link this directly as their own ignorance and lose interest in your brand. Remember that response to consumers’ comments and complaints is taken as customer service and if you fail on this part you fail entirely in branding your image on social media networks. Having said this, allotting a specific slot of the day for answering queries could solve the problem for you.
Mistake #6: Having a lot of social media accounts
It is seen that many businesses make the crucial mistake of having a lot of social media accounts thinking that this will provide them an opportunity for high exposure. However, in reality you have to figure out where your audience virtually hangs out.
Moreover, managing a social media account is a time consuming affair. Having many social media accounts makes you less focused and may make you less alert. You would be distracted and irritated handling so many social media accounts and may distort your online image which might be hard to repair.
So the best option for you would be to figure out the platforms that your audience uses. Facebook and Twitter are staple networks. If you are selling products that are image centric then Pinterest and Tumblr networks would be good for you. However certain demographics do opt to be active on G+ and LinkedIn.
Mistake #7: Censoring Criticism
People may air out complaints on your Social Media Platforms which you may be tempted to remove. However, censoring criticism can further degrade your brand image as your audiences get the message that you have failed to deliver on your promises. This leaves a bad impression of you. Instead, you should listen to them and should come out to solve their problems and queries. This would be better for your brand image because then people would feel that you are taking them seriously and are eager to address their issues.
Mistake #8: No Integration with other digital assets
Social media is utilized best when connected with other digital marketing efforts. So leaving your social media accounts unintegrated can be a costly mistake for you. You should make every effort to link your social media accounts through profiles. Not only this, your social media accounts should be directly tied to emails, websites, and paid search advertising campaigns. Not integrating your social media accounts with other digital assets go onto reduce the reach each asset has individually.
Mistake #9: No use of Images
Images on Social Media Channels help drive engagements. According to research conducted by Zabisco 40 percent of people, respond better to visual stimulation than merely by plain text. Posts with photos get 50 percent more impressions on Facebook when compared to other post types. They also gather more likes and comments. So not using Images in your Facebook page or on Twitter is a tremendous mistake that you should avoid at all costs.
Mistake #10: No consistent voice
You should always use a consistent voice on your social media channels. That uplifts your brand image. Engaging into arguments or insulting other brands should never feature in your messages. You should also avoid sending out same messages over and over again. You should make your message sound consistent, human, and caring at the same time.
Today, Social Media is one of the most powerful internet marketing tools available with business owners. However, without a proper social media marketing strategy your efforts can be detrimental to your brand’s reputation. So don’t make these 10 Social Media Marketing Mistakes if you really want to take advantage of this very powerful online marketing tool that is Social Media Marketing.
