You may have set up social media profiles, but are you receiving all of the benefits social media marketing has to offer? Read on to see if you may be making mistakes that are hindering your marketing efforts.
Not Engaging With the Audience
One of the perks of social media marketing is the simple fact that it allows marketers to connect with their target audience. When users have questions about your brand or product, they can post a message to your social media page. In turn, you should respond by answering the users’ questions. You can also ask questions and let your readers answer them. This simple form of engagement leaves a positive impression on the users asking and answering the questions and on other site visitors. You can also use social media to offer a free product or coupon code.
Ignoring Negative Comments
It never feels good to see negative comments on your social media sites. However, a common mistake is to avoid responding them. If a user posts a negative comment — don’t ignore it or delete it — use it as an opportunity to rebuild the relationship with the disgruntled user.
Here’s an example:
A friend of mine had a poor customer service experience on an airline flight. She used Twitter to express her concern, basically to just vent her anger. To her surprise, the airline responded to her tweet and acknowledged their mistake and her concern. Now, instead of avoiding that airline, she is willing to give them another try — and even more importantly, countless others who may have read the Twitter interaction see that the airline is paying attention and addressing customer concerns.
Using a Personal Facebook Profile
Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is hands down the leading platform for social media marketing. However, many entrepreneurs and small business owners fail to take full advantage of everything it has to offer. If you’re still using your personal profile page to market your products and/or services, you’re leaving tons of potential on the table. Users can’t “like” a personal profile page, which is a huge drawback for marketers. Business pages, on the hand, can receive a countless number of likes.
To create a Facebook page (not a profile), visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/create? and follow the on-screen instructions.
Posting Infrequently or Too Frequently
Far too many marketers set up their social media pages, only to let them grow dormant in the months to follow. You can’t expect a social media account to offer any real benefit to your brand unless you are publishing new content regularly. A good rule of thumb is to publish a minimum of two posts per week to keep users interested and engaged.
However, you can go overboard and tweet or post too frequently, which may cause some of your followers to start ignoring you. Consider setting up a schedule for each social media channel you use. This will keep you on track to post often enough and allow you to see when you may be over doing it.
Posting Only Promotional or the Same-Old-Content
The beauty of using social media is it allows you to build relationships with your audience. Only posting content that promotes your product or service will turn readers off and make them less likely to trust you. You should be continually asking yourself, “How will this information benefit my readers?” If you’re not giving them information that is relevant to them, they will lose interest in your organization. Try to also think about which type of information your readers would be most likely to share with their social media networks.
Mix up your content too — don’t post the same type of content over and over. For example, different types of posts could include a new product or service announcement, a discount code or free item, a how-to post, a funny or engaging image, a question for your readers, etc.
Using Too Many or the Wrong Channels
Running a successful social media campaign requires time and thought. Instead of trying to be on every social media channel available, think about who your target audience is. Since Facebook is by far still the most popular, you should probably be on it. If your target audience is college-educated business professionals, make sure you’re on LinkedIn. If it’s women, Pinterest should be a primary channel. Don’t waste your valuable time trying to be everywhere — instead, focus on doing a good job on the sites most relevant to your target audience. Click to read a report about social media demographics from the Pew Research Center.
Not Paying For Traffic
If you really want to take your social media marketing to the next level, you should consider paying for traffic. Facebook Ads offers both cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) payment models for advertisers, allowing you to optimize your campaigns for a higher return. If you’re willing to spend the money, you’ll find Facebook Ads to be a highly lucrative source of traffic for your business. Just remember to keep an eye on your metrics to prevent overspending on bad traffic. The secret to a successful Facebook Ads campaign is a combination of A-B split testing and well-defined targeting.
What social media marketing mistakes are you guilty of making? Let us know in the comments section below! Then, contact us for help.
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