10 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes
Social Media Marketing is the art of knowing what type of content works on which channel in which region...and given how vast the world is and how many platforms there are, it is easy to get it wrong. In this blog post we will try to highlight the 10 main mistakes that companies tend to make when choosing to market their product or service through social media.
1. No social media strategy
Unfortunately we see this all too often in businesses - random posts on random channels. Sometimes days go by without posting anything and on other occasions they binge-post. This is a sign that there is no plan, and no plan is no good!
2. Limited understanding of the audience / target market
The more is not always the merrier. Social media marketing is not about reaching tens of thousands of users; it is about reaching the right kinds of users first. That will eventually result in reaching the tens of thousands of the right kind of users. It is vital to conduct audience research and social media listening.
3. No use of content calendar
Once again, planning is vital. It is all well and good when you are still at the beginning because that is when followers flow in regularly. However, what happens when you stop giving your followers a reason to follow your brand? Yes, you guessed it. They will unfollow you and you will have to start from the beginning. There is an easier way - the content marketing matrix. Boy will this make your life easier!!
4. No one in charge of social media marketing
This is simple - social media marketing won't work if there is not someone who is responsible to ensure that it does work.
5. No metrics
If you do not have the right KPIs and reporting metrics in place, there is no way of really understanding whether you are concentrating your efforts in the right places. You will not know which post performed better, and you will not be able to start seeing a pattern as to what works more than what.
6. No customer service
The aim of social media marketing is not to sell, but to engage potential customers. Therefore, if you plan and spend part of your marketing budget on social media marketing, and then fail to have someone reply to customers through social media channels, then you will still miss the boat.
7. PR disasters
Another simple one....if you post something on social media and find out later that people react badly to it, DO NOT delete it. Tackle problems head-on, reply to negative remarks politely and whatever you do, do not jump on the angry bandwagon. The good news is, that if you follow steps 1 - 6 above, the likelihood of having to deal with a PR disaster is reduced significantly.
8. No strategy for sponsored ads
It is important to remember that a sponsored ad on a social media channel can never replace the effort you need to put into managing the channel itself. It might be a good idea to include sponsored ads into your strategy, but alas, they have to form part of a strategy.
9. Each platform is treated the same
This is another one we see very often. To save time, companies sometimes cross-post i.e. they upload something on Facebook, for example, then they share it on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. This is bad, very bad! The content that works on Facebook is completely different from the content that works on any other channel....so you need to have channel-specific content.
10. No integration with other marketing channels
Studies have shown that 46% of consumers worldwide use social media to complain. This provides companies and businesses with a good opportunity to provide high-quality customer service, thus influencing future consumers through they way they deal with complaints on their social media channels.
Conclusion
Does this sound too complicated? Or would you like further information on how to achieve one or more of these steps? Worry not! Get in touch and well be happy to help you!