Social media marketingis a keystone of most modern business’s core marketing efforts. Done right, a successful social media strategy can deliver measurable results and directly help to build brand awareness. However, it’s not always easy to get every aspect of social media marketing right, and if you do make mistakes it can at best be ineffectual, and at worst could actually damage your brand reputation. Here are three common social media errors we have seen in the past, and how you can avoid falling into the same traps.
- Failing to listen to your audience. Too many businesses are guilty of seeing social media as purely a broadcast medium – a place to shout out your message to your audience. That is one of its functions, certainly, but there is more to it than that, and we’re not just talking about two-way engagement with your customers and potential customers. Social listening is an increasingly important part of marketing and brand management – you need to know what people are saying about your business. Fortunately, there are many social media listening tools that you can use to monitor for mentions and keywords. Tools such as Awario, Mention and Brandwatch can be used to not just find out how your brand is perceived online, but also to gain broader insights into your industry and your competitors.
- Not delivering value to your audience. When it comes to engagement and social media interactions, it has become increasingly clear in recent years that users gravitate toward content that provides value. That means that your social media marketing must extend beyond just social advertising to providing a mix of content that will interest, engage, amuse or stimulate your audience. Whether your content consists of prerecorded or live video, blog posts or infographics, look to produce material for your audience that will make them think, educate them … or even make them laugh. Don’t underestimate the value of humor in posts and tweets in getting people to connect with your brand.
- Not recognizing the difference between social networks.There are a wide variety of different platforms for businesses to employ in their social media marketing strategies: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many others. Some brands make the mistake of thinking that all social media platforms are the same, and will submit the same content to each. There are a number of issues with this approach. Different social media platforms attract different types of users and different demographics. To be successful in business, you need to understand who your audience is – their age, gender, geographic location, employment and education factors, and so on – and where they are more likely to congregate online. Tailor your content to both your audience and the social mediaplatform that you’re posting to. And remember not to spread your social media marketing efforts too thin – if your target customers are much more likely to spend time on Instagram than Twitter, then does spending time, money and effort on Twitter ads make sense as part of an effective social media strategy?
We hope these tips will help you to focus your efforts on more successful and effective social media marketing campaigns. If you need help with your social marketing efforts, contact us today to discuss how we can help.