Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes &How to Avoid Them
There are many ways to engage on social media. Let’s discuss a few social media marketing mistakes and how you can avoid them.
No developed strategy prior to launching
Not paying attention to customer engagement
Inconsistent content
Using the wrong platform
In the world of small business, there are many things you can do (for free) to grow your business and following. It can be overwhelming and exciting to look at all the opportunities for your business to grow. Social media marketing is essential to a growing business. Unless your business is mature and well-established (decades in business), you absolutely need a strong social media presence to compete in today’s world. Even if your business is decades old, a social media presence is still a good idea today.
At Flywheel, we view what we see on social media through the lens of improvements that can be made. These mistakes are the top ones seen consistently on social media. Now how do we avoid them?
Develop a strategy prior to launching. Before your business takes off, you need to plan which platforms make the most sense for your business and how you will use them. We highly recommend a content calendar, which we have discussed several times. (We really, really encourage a content calendar.)
a. Pick your platforms in advance. Start with Facebook and Instagram. Expand as it makes sense for your business.
b. Complete your business profile in entirety with a strong profile picture, use of all logos and branding, contact information and more. It’s free.
Use it.
c. Plan content on a calendar starting a month out when possible.
Pay attention to customer engagement. Once you begin asking people to like and share your page or content, pay attention when someone likes or shares your page. Say thank you. Reply to their comment. Engage with customers as much as possible in a healthy and positive way.
Be consistent with content. This is where the content calendar is helpful. Make a schedule of how often you will post. Planning content in advance takes the guesswork out of what to post. Tracking metrics like when your followers online helps you to know the best times to post your content for followers so they actually see what you post. Try to avoid long periods of inactivity unless you let followers know in advance.
Pick the best platform. We had a client once who asked for social media marketing help on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. The business was a custom cookie business. Twitter and Snapchat do not make sense for a custom cookie business, but Instagram and Facebook absolutely make sense. We created a custom plan to build a solid and engaging presence on both platforms.
At Flywheel, we take the guesswork out of social media marketing for you. You can reach out to us today for a free consultation. We will look at what you have already and give insight into what changes you can make today. We would love to partner with you in business!