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There has been and always will be misinformation about the internet, doing rounds through the internet. What an irony! So today we are here to address some of the wrong social media strategies and social media marketing mistakes that you seriously need to avoid. 

Let me open up with a short story here. I have some friends who are much senior to me working in the field of social media marketing. They said to me that when they started, people said that the internet and social media were just a fad that would soon fade out. Yet, here we are!

You must be wondering how important is it to dedicate a full blog to the topic? Well, you will find out soon.

The thing is, misinformation hurts businesses and their respective marketing strategies. It further affects the brand identity as a whole, wiping out potential customers as well.  And do tell me, why would you waste time and resources on ineffective social media tactics and strategies? 

I have been researching ways to avoid these expensive and time-consuming social media mistakes and discovered some effective facts. Trust me, this will help you build the business that you deserve and keep your customers happy. 

So let’s check out some of the most common social media marketing mistakes that people make on a daily basis, how to rectify them and maximize the end result. Seems valid enough to discuss I guess? So stay with me and discover more through this blog.

But at the end of the day, we are humans and we are liable to make mistakes. The thing is marketers get so engrossed in the social media activities that they unintentionally keep making some common social media marketing mistakes. But worry no more! You will get over it! Just stay with me till the end of the blog, will you?

The Social media marketing mistakes

Social media marketing is the basic ingredient to mark your digital presence. Everyone is doing it, especially to promote their business on the online podium. No matter how big or small a venture is, everyone has the intention of leaving a mark on social media platforms. And no, it’s not just a trendy thing to do, it is where the crowd is! Do you get my point?

See, social media users are unforgiving. If you continue making the same mistakes each day, you will soon see your social media analytics dropdown. Now, the first step of rectifying mistakes is to be aware of them, right? 

So, let’s not scare you anymore and just begin with what I am talking about. Enlisted below are the basic social media marketing mistakes that you need to stop RIGHT NOW!

1. Not having a social media marketing plan

Building a social media marketing plan might seem pretty basic and obvious, right? Well, let me tell you, it’s not that basic. There are major companies that don’t seem to have a social media marketing plan and just keep randomly posting content on their social media handles. Can you believe it?  Don’t tell me you are one of them! If you are, please strategize something today itself.

Social media marketing is as important as any other form of marketing these days. Don’t think it to be just a channel to grab the attention of the carefree millennial kids out there. 

Here’s what you can do:

• List out your goals.
• Make a budget to achieve these goals.
• Come up with a specific plan of action.

This will help you decide on the budget and format of your plan of action. Clean, you see!

Hey, did you know? One of the best online marketing strategies till date is the Old Spice ad campaign of 2010. It fundamentally changed the business into a hippie brand. Sounds fun, right? 

So what they did is, they came up with a video ad titled as – “The Man Your Man could smell like”. They featured the NFL player Isaiah Mustafa, to grab some eyeballs and it so worked!

Want to watch it right now? Here – https://youtu.be/owGykVbfgUE

Now tell me, why do you think it was a success? Yes, absolutely! It is something new! If you continue with the same social media strategy each day, after a point, it may just not work anymore! This is exactly why you need to change and update!

2. Not defining your target audience

The whole world is not your audience, right? You sell a particular kind of product that matches a certain sector of the audience. So work on that specific sector. Don’t go around wooing the world! We are not Tom Cruise or Madonna here, are we? 

Hence, defining your target audience helps you plan your social media marketing efforts and strategies for potential customers. The ones who are sincerely interested in the product and service that you deliver. This one is an underrated secret here! Trust me!

For example, there’s this social media strategy company called Convince & Convert. They follow this strategy of defining the target audience in the best way possible! Jay Baer, the founder, defines their user base in the B2B platform and not the B2C platform.

Consequently, all the content that they publish compulsorily has LinkedIn share buttons. That’s their priority and not the common social media handles like Twitter or Facebook. Isn’t this interesting? 

The brand seems to know its target audience pretty well and that is how they are growing successfully. 

Do you know your target audience and the social media platform that they are majorly active in? Check it out today!

3. Failing to engage in conversations

Communication is the key in all sorts of relationships! Be it personal or professional, you need to interact with the people involved therein. Don’t you agree?  And to do this, you need to put up content that provokes people to talk about or leave their comments at least. See what I did there?  If people do not comment or share the content that you post, then they are probably ignoring it and you are just draining your resources. 

Now let’s be optimistic and say if you are getting reactions on your posts, never ever ignore them. Always, I repeat, always revert to the comments and shares. Communication is a two-way street. You know what? I say reply to the mean comments as well. Think them to be constructive criticism and follow up.   

Oh wait, let me ask you, are you hot-headed? If yes, then please try to keep it cool in the comment section. No matter what it is, be polite and act friendly even if some of the comments are gut-wrenching. The trick is to not take anything personally!

Heard of the “Race Together” campaign by Starbucks?  Guess the purpose of it! Conversation! Can you believe it? It was a campaign to promote communication about diversity and races.  However, it failed miserably because of bad execution.

See how important it is to keep it cool? Practice it!

4. Relying too much on automation

Automation is necessary, I agree. But relying too much on it may hamper your social media strategy. See, your brand needs a human touch. It is a way for the audience to relate to your brand and grow a sense of brand loyalty as well.  Also, automation lacks social etiquette and can hamper your brand image at times. Here’s an example.

The professional American football team, the New England Patriots got into trouble when their automated bot posted an offensive racial comment on their official Twitter handle. Can you imagine? 

What? Why? How? Let me tell you the story. See, the team had asked its followers to retweet posts and they would get an automated tweet in return. The team also promised to feature that particular fan’s Twitter handle in their jersey.  This was all in celebration for the one million Twitter followers of the team. 

And this where the story turns sour! Someone made the bot tweet a racial slur. Before they could take it down, around 2000 people had already shared the tweet. How shameful and unfortunate!

So this is what I am saying.  Automation is important, but don’t allow it to take over. That’s all.

5. Not tracking analytics

Do you ever forget to check the result of an exam that you appeared for? I hope not. So it’s the same case here as well. 

Your analytics is a live document. You need to keep working and improving it. If it’s good, make it better. If it’s better than before, there’s always room for improvement. And it’s a loop here. A never-ending one! 

But how will you improve if you do not check the analytics? You need to know what’s working and what’s not. Pretty simple! To plan the future you need to get a hold of the consequences of your actions in the past. Are you getting my point here? 

By keeping a track of your analytics, you can plan efficient marketing strategies to improve your brand identity and brand awareness as well. How smooth is that!

Start with the following: 

• Monitor user engagement.
• Keep a track of the conversions with the potential customers.
• Analyze the market trends.
• Tap your influence in your niche market.

6. Treating all social media platforms the same

Every social media platform is unique in its own way. You need to imbibe the culture of every social media platform to be able to interact with the potential customers. It’s very simple and obvious, isn’t it? 

Try and understand how each social media platform works so that you can dig out the best opportunities from each of them. Sounds perfect, right? Once you unlock this, you will flow through every platform with an exponential growth rate. Stop being lazy and putting up the same content on every social media platform. 

For example, a tapas bistro and restaurant – San Chez Bistro, applied this strategy way back in 2010. The restaurant, in Michigan, launched a campaign – “Tweet-Ahead Seating”.

 The objective was to make its clients book a reservation in the restaurant via Twitter. And oh! How it worked!

So that’s how it is! They understood what would work on Twitter and followed it. Imagine doing the same on Facebook? No!

7. Asking friends to like/follow your page

Let’s not act out here! We know everyone has done it or is probably still doing it, right?

You might be frowning right now thinking what sense does this make! Don’t worry, I will explain.  

This whole thing might seem harmless but it has detrimental effects on your business and brand identity. Tell me, what’s the use of a group of followers who are friends and family and who won’t buy from you ever? Followers are not decorations, mind it! You need followers who are leads or even potential customers. Making sense, right?

You know what? It negatively decreases customer engagement rate with your brand, which in turn hampers your organic reach. Now you wouldn’t want this for your business, right?

It’s just that, with a low engagement rate, the algorithm that is responsible to show up your content, assumes that people are not interested. So it literally fades you out from the feed. Painful, I say.  

So just focus on building a strong base on social media platforms. Even if you have 50 active followers, it is better than having 500 followers who are there only because you asked them to!

8. Being a faceless corporation with no human touch

Back with the human touch again! 

Social media involves real people interacting and reaching out. A faceless page/profile just doesn’t work on social media. Just do the following:

• Respond to comments and messages personally and not using automated replies.
• Post a picture of the office or behind the scenes, at times.
• Post stories and videos of the employees at work or anything as such.

Overview

So what did we learn? A lot, I guess! Did you happen to relate to any or all of these fundamental social media marketing mistakes? If yes, it’s okay. Start over. Just follow the advice and research more if you need to.  

If you happen to be unsure about the whole approach, consider hiring a social media expert. It’s all on you! Remember your goals, look at your competition, stay focused, and get through this! 

Startups more than anyone else need this most importantly. Publicity on social media is everything, but keep the foundation solid and keep growing. Talking of startups, if you happen to be one, feel free to reach out to us at TheCodeWork. Here at TheCodeWork, we provide you with a go-to-market strategy to build the product with the assistance of our Minimum Viable Product development or the MVP approach.

We are here for you!