There is no doubt that social media marketing is a necessity for all businesses. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter help in increasing brand awareness and increase engagements with the audience. When social media marketing is done correctly, great leads are generated. However, as much as social media is a great marketing tool, it can also harm your business if some of the following mistakes are not avoided.
Missing a strategy
Social media is an expansive territory for any kind of business to navigate without a plan or strategy. Why does a business needs a social media plan? It is of paramount importance for a business to lay down a foundation on what it intends to achieve, how they plan to do it and the amount of resources they need. The strategy should be drawn up as a concerted effort between the management and overall marketing team. Social media marketing should complement a business’ offline marketing or seamlessly augment with its other campaigns.
Being anywhere and everywhere
Just because your favorite online tech publication described a new social media networking site as ‘hot’ doesn’t mean your business needs to be present there. Each social media platform serves a specific audience which might not augur well with certain brands. For instance, brands that are looking for a younger generation will tap on social media platforms such as snapchat and Instagram. On the other hand, LinkedIn matured since the day she was born meaning it’s a good place for any business to start. With a strategic expansion continually the business will find a footing in the rocky waters that is social media.
Too much self-promotion
The rule of thumb is that 80% of content should be social while only 20% should be about the business. In most cases the audience needs to learn, laugh, share or simply stare. There is so much complicated stuff happening in the real world that social media offers a great escape. So every business should keep this in mind while posting content on their social media pages. Be mindful in creating original and unique content. Content has to be good in order to attract more engagements and interaction.
Lacking consistency
It’s one thing to be on social media and another to create a dedicated audience. Of course, there are a myriad of factors that need to be in place in order for a business to build a formidable audience and lack of consistency isn’t one of them. The audience needs to hear from the business on a personalized level. The brand should have a human voice representing it in its social media posts. People relate with other humans easily. Similarly, they need to hear from a business consistently in order to place trust on the business. Therefore businesses need to be generous on content sharing on their social media pages.
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