Coach Yourself to Success! If you’re just beginning social media for your business, you may be worried about making mistakes. You’re right to be concerned – there’s a lot to learn about navigating the waters of online marketing if you’ve never done it before. However, if do your research and have a great team by your side, you should be just fine. That is, if you avoid the following top five social media mistakes:
- Not posting enough. You’re a busy person who’s short on time. We get that. However, don’t let your social marketing efforts slide just because there aren’t enough hours in the day. You don’t even have to spend hours every day online in order to market effectively – and in fact, you shouldn’t. But not posting enough material is the fastest route to letting your audience forget about you, or worse – thinking you have nothing of value to say or share.
- Posting too often. Yes, we know we just said not posting often enough was a problem. But on the flip side, so is posting too often. People tend to tune out when you’re constantly uploading new content – especially if the value is questionable. Make sure you have something to add to the conversation, and don’t just be another rambling voice.
- Posting the wrong content. Classic newbie social media mistakes in this area include: posting re-hashed stuff without adding anything new (see #2 above), posting content that’s way too personal for a business account, and posting information that isn’t the right fit for your audience.
- Not engaging your audience. Social media marketing doesn’t only consist of yelling out into the void. In addition to posting, you need to be retweeting, replying, and generally interacting with your audience. Offer yourself as a font of knowledge and expertise for your area of business – not a set of non-stop ads. Then, when customers and clients are ready to purchase, your name will be at the forefront of their minds.
5. Posting for the wrong audience. Think all social media channels are the same? Not so fast. Different demographics flock to different platforms, and posting similar content for all of them may not work so well (see #3 above). For instance, light/fun/short posts are perfect for FB, which skews towards a younger audience (though it’s grown older in recent years). Business networking and related content do better on LinkedIn, where people are looking to make connections that affect their careers.