Using social media marketing as part of your digital marketing strategy to attract new leads online is attractive for many reasons. Most social media is free to use. Millions of people are active on social media every day, including a sizable portion of your brand’s target audience. This is great news for people who want to improve their brand’s visibility online.
However, it’s not as simple as making an account and sitting back.
Your social media marketing plan requires a well-thought-out strategy that has long-term goals but is also flexible enough for sudden changes. Anyone can do social media marketing if they have the time or skills, but it’s important to be careful with your plan and avoid some easy-to-make but costly mistakes.
Five mistakes to avoid in your social media marketing plan
- Not tracking results — One of the best aspects of social media marketing is the ability to track several metrics that are useful to your marketing team. You can view useful information, such as post impressions, likes, clicks, reposts, comments and how many users arrive at your website via social media. Knowing this information helps you know what changes to your strategy you need to make and what’s working well for your brand.
If your brand has any social media accounts and is not tracking this information, you’re missing out. - Treating each social media platform the same — Facebook is Facebook. Twitter is Twitter. TikTok is TikTok. And so on.
Each platform is different. They are different in function, and they are tailored toward different audiences. Before even making an account on any of them, you need to do the research and identify if your target audience is active on a particular platform and if it’s worth your time.
If you do have accounts on a variety of social media platforms, treat them as they were meant to be treated. Don’t copy and paste the same posts across Facebook and Twitter. Create content that is optimized for each of them.
Also, consider how your audience varies from platform to platform. TikTok and Instagram are more popular with younger demographics, while Twitter and Facebook have a more diverse range of ages. - Ignoring negative comments — It always feels great to respond to a positive comment with gratitude. However, negative comments can feel awkward to handle, and many brands make the mistake of simply ignoring them. This is the worst thing you can do. Not only does the upset person gain a more negative impression of your brand, but numerous others will see this and think less of your brand for it.
Always respond to comments, even if they’re negative. Just make sure to be polite and helpful. Apologize, look for solutions and offer your own perspective if applicable (without arguing). Even if that person continues to remain upset about your brand, others will at least see that you tried and that you care about providing the best service you can. - Making it too much about your brand — We see this too often. Brands use their social media accounts to spam countless posts about their brand, their services and their products. This approach is basically the same as a television commercial or a billboard; it’s aimed at nobody in particular and it’s easy for your audience to ignore.
It’s OK to advertise services and products every now and then, but your social media should feel more personal than robotic and businesslike. Share stories. Share helpful, informative content. Share entertaining content. Share videos. Share pictures. Host live sessions, such as a Q&A. In other words, any form of more relatable activity you can use, use more of it and less of your brand. This might seem counterintuitive to you, but it’s more effective in keeping your followers engaged with your brand than spamming advertisements. - Scheduling automatic posts — Scheduling posts in advance is a great time saver and a smart strategy. However, scheduling posts to automatically post is risky. For example, if you schedule a post to go live automatically at a certain day and time, it could happen during a tragic event. Your brand will appear robotic, insensitive and out of touch.
What’s worse, this kind of behavior not only angers your current followers, but it gains negative attention, potentially even from the media. It’s best to post your content in live time, but you can pre-write and edit it all to save time. This way, if there is a tragedy, you can change up what you would post to express solidarity or wishes, and so forth.
Ready to do social media marketing the right way? We are.
Social media marketing is one of the best ways to maintain a live, accessible connection with numerous followers of your brand. However, monitoring its performance and managing your platforms takes a lot of time and effort. You may not have the free time or the skills to dedicate toward your social media marketing. But we do.
Our team has years of experience in helping businesses improve their digital presence to attract new leads and retain existing ones. If you’re looking to perform better on social media and attract more visitors to your site, we’re ready to talk to you to see how we can help. Contact our team today for more information about social media marketing or to schedule a complimentary consultation.
