Social media marketing is an integral component of every company’s marketing strategy at this point in time.
There are hundreds of millions of users that log onto their profiles on a daily basis. That’s just too large of an audience to ignore – not to mention that it’s one of the most cost effective marketing strategies there is. However, managing a social media marketing campaign isn’t as easy as managing your personal profile. A lot of work and resources must go into the maintenance of a campaign for it to be successful. There are also a lot of mistakes that can hinder your campaign. The following are some of the common social media marketing mistakes that you should be sure to avoid.
Thinking Short-Term (Instead of Long-Term)
You can’t sign up to a social media site and assume that you’ll begin attracting followers immediately without doing anything, or that your sales will instantly double. Social media is a way to connect with the consumer and to develop relationships. Just like real life relationships, a relationship has to develop and grow. This is a long-term marketing strategy that will slowly net your results. Don’t expect instant success.
Diving in Without a Strategy
Before beginning to use social media, you need to decide on a clear strategy to ensure your marketing efforts are effective. Posting random content and notes won’t get you anywhere. Have a clear goal in mind so that everything you do has purpose. Without a purpose, you won’t have any way to measure your marketing strategy and you most likely won’t be seeing results in any form.
Using it for One-Way Communication
While it’s a great way to inform your customers about sales, deals, promotions, new products and more, remember that listening is as much a part of being social as speaking. Respond to messages that your followers or consumers post and incite discussion by asking questions. You can learn a lot about your company by listening to what your customers have to say.
Thinking that Everything Goes
There was a time when the Internet was an anonymous forum. That time is long gone. Everything you post will be seen by the world and is on record, which means you can’t just dismiss negative comments or act in a rude manner because you’re having a bad day. The things you post will affect the reputation of your company, so keep your temper (and ego) in check.
Too Much Self-Promotion
While there’s nothing wrong with posting about new products or sales, don’t make a habit of promoting your brand all the time. It will eventually seem like spam, which could lead to consumers un-following you. Provide your followers with content that is useful or informative to them as well in order to build a strong reputation and to grow brand loyalty instead of constantly advertising.
Buying your followers
You can actually buy likes and followers for certain social media platforms. While this makes you seem like you’re more popular, it actually does nothing to accomplish your goal since these aren’t real people. These bought likes or followers don’t care about your brand at all, which means you’ll be getting through to no one.
Posting Too Little (or Too Much)
There’s a fine line between posting too little or posting too much. If you post too little, followers will lose interest in you or simply forget that you even exist. Posting too much, however, can become aggravating to your followers.
Inconsistencies Between Accounts
Most companies will make use of multiple social media networks. This is a smart idea, since you can reach different audiences this way and broaden the awareness for your company. However, don’t make the mistake of using a different voice in order to attract a different audience. For example, the people that use LinkedIn tend to be more professional than those that use Vine. But by changing your voice, you’ll only confuse customers and weaken the identity of your brand. In addition to keeping your voice consistent, the look should be consistent as well, meaning you should be using the same fonts, colours and logos across all your web content.
Underestimating the Resources Involved
Maintaining a social media marketing campaign takes a lot of resources. You need people that can analyze metrics, write content, respond to messages, keep your profiles up to date and manage your entire campaign to keep everyone on the same page.
It can be very easy to make these common mistakes. However, creating a plan for your social marketing efforts will ensure you avoid committing any.
