How effective is your social media marketing? If everyone is doing it, then there must be good reasons why businesses big or small are using it successfully. At the onset of utilising the tools in this type of marketing strategy, it is normal to suddenly become very hopeful that a few weeks or months after, you will see the fruits of your labor.

The reality is that, it is very common for businesses, individuals and many companies to see themselves at a loss on what to do next when their expectations are not met. If you feel that you are not getting the most from your social media efforts by generating more leads, finding more customers and increasing your revenues, then there might be a better way. You will be pleased to know that you’re not alone in this marketing dilemma. Many companies have made the same mistakes; we hope this blog will identify what the most common mistakes are and how to avoid those social media blunders. Read on and find out what to do and what not to. 

1. Creating the Wrong Content

There may be a sense of freedom with content for social media, but this does not mean that just because you are free to post anything, that you can just post “anything”, sorry to let you down. The most common mistakes that people and businesses normally make is to forget that their social media profiles represent themselves and their brand. It’s not enough that you post more than a couple of times a day. Spamming is never attractive. What’s important is that your posts offer a chance for your prospects and customers to get to know you better, selling without selling.  Better still posts that are shared and create a conversation, that have people talking about your brand which can, if you're fortunate, become viral in the most positive way.

What To Do: Instead of repurposing your entire brands content and always posting about your brand, think about your own personal brand for a moment and take a position on a topic, a little controversy can work well. Identify with what you can do for your customers, what is the solution you solve not the product you sell. Try working your real life experiences into your posts. Your posts will likely be more attractive to your followers and potential customers if you also involve your audience and talk about what’s valuable to them and for them. Inject some humour, a real life event, a situation where a current customer can join in on the conversation. That’s the beauty of how an online presence can work right there. Try not to forget you can still position your brand in a way that links it positively to your posts.  

2. Buying Followers - Buying Likes

Followers are not on a typical supply list for production; yet this is something that many businesses still do. This is not a very good investment at all, of what purpose will those thousands of followers be, if they don’t genuinely believe in your product?  What happens when you buy Likes and Follows is that you get numbers but this does not necessarily mean that they are the demographic you are trying to reach or even have any interest in what you do. Most of the time, what you get is a high number of likes and followers and very low interaction. Nothing beats loyal customers who have been following and better sill using your brand for years. Nothing beats the impact of those who may have only tried your product or service once, but are more than happy to tell the world about it. Buying likes and buying followers is nothing but an empty number and is not going to give you the results that you expect and need.

What To Do: You will be surprised at the simple chain of alternatives that you can do instead of buying a silent audience. One important thing to do is to build your profiles and get active on the social media channels where your customers hangout. This simply means you do more than just building a profile but actually establishing a reliable active account that is packed with you or your companies great content. Social media is after all a faster and more efficient type of “word-of-mouth” marketing. 

3.Bandwagon and the Lack of Planning

Businesses are presently wrestling with the ROI for social media activities. Some are successful and most are not. More than 90% of corporate blogs only have 5 posts, and those are likely outdated and have nothing to do with the problems the company is solving. Generating revenue from your social activities may be one of the goals, or it may be to offer a boost to a customer service program. Whatever the logic may be, there is nothing more important than building a quality strategy before you get going; and the word itself is synonymous with planning. You shouldn't expect your social media marketing to simply work because you join in the “fun”. It may work well for some, but it does not necessarily mean it will work for you especially if you don’t have a plan. You witness many businesses and brands on Facebook and Twitter that are stagnant and are simply there for the purpose of having an account. Never underestimate the work that you may need to put forth to make this marketing strategy work for your business.

What To Do: Firstly, you need to understand that businesses big or small become successful through social media for a number of reasons. Those reasons generally involve a lot of planning and hard work. Once you understand that, then you will definitely be on the right track. You need to understand that a content marketing plan comes before a social media marketing plan. You may need to do this yourself or you could have to find a quality content partner or maybe develop an entire department. Importantly, plan your content first, then build your posts and develop your campaign activity plans. Make sure that you will be able to maintain your social media activities and channels and keep it running consistently. With good planning and some brainstorming, you'll be able to come up with the good content, that will see more likes, shares and consequently, gain you more followers and ultimately more customers.   

4.No Interaction and Deleting Negative Comments

The main purpose for your social media activity is to communicate and interact with people, not robots. Simply placing ads or promos on your pages and wondering why there is no activity on your facebook page should tell you something. People don't want to be sold to, they want to buy from you when they are ready. The biggest booboo may be when a conversation goes wrong and the account holder deactivates the comments section or deletes negative comments altogether. 

What To Do: Businesses entail relationship building and social media is a great way to do that. Interaction does not necessarily mean replying to all posts, especially the nasty ones. However, it definitely requires your business to respond appropriately. Use social media to launch contests and other gatherings. This is also the best avenue for you to defend your product and services. No business is perfect and responding to negative comments may just be your best way to resolve customer’s issues real time. Diffusion the negative comment by saying thank you for complaining and mean it and always take the high road.

Here's a recent blog on how to respond to a Social Media Crisis

5. Thinking That Social Media is a Panacea

Social media will change your business if you're open to the possibilities. Defining a single strategy is not the cure of all ills for your business. You cannot rely on social media to do all the work for you and think that if you show up on a channel it will generate all the revenue you need. There’s definitely more to business than social media marketing, though it’s undeniably one of the most important aspects today. The biggest mistake is cutting yourself to thin across to many channels. 

What To Do: Yes setup all of your channels, why not, your business may need them as they become important. Then depending on your budgets start with a focus on just one channel. Select the channel where your customers are most likely hanging out. If you must go with a second channel then select one that compliments the one you're working on. There are dozens of channels and adopt a good social media management software or platform and develop a way to manage your engaging content.

Its time to unlearn many of the past marketing trends and adopt some new and very powerful ways of connecting with your future customers. Learning from the way marketing trends have been successful in the past and following some sound advice on avoiding any social blunders should keep you moving in the right direction. 

Did you know that 70% of customers will do business with you again if you resolve a serious problem? Have you had a social blunder in the past that you turned to your advantage? Leave us a comment below on how you used your social skills to keep a customer on your side.

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