What are you doing with social media? Does your business have a dedicated team or even someone part-time that can devote an hour or two a day to building networks and sharing content? Do they know what they’re doing—or are they just throwing spaghetti at the wall? (And do you wipe down the wall after that?)
In today’s crowded business environment, it’s more important than ever to raise your digital profile—and by the way: your wall needs a better cleaner. You can’t just set up an account and hope people find you. And no matter what new tool enters the fray (i.e., Vine), it won’t do anything for your business if you aren’t actively participating in it.
So, what mistakes are holding you back? Here are nine of them:
1. You Don’t Have a Strategy—or Worse, You Think Social Media Marketing Is Free!
![The Burn Is Real – rAVe [PUBS]](https://www.ravepubs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/stress.jpg)
Social media is not free; there’s time and energy spent on each post you make, and the returns need to be evaluated. You may even want to hire someone experienced in social media promotion who can let you know what strategy would work best for your business.
Hiring someone? Ensure they help you figure out your goals, create content that will resonate with your audience, and provide reports on their activities. And don’t forget: they’ll want to know exactly what you want from them, and should have a plan on how to achieve your goals.
2. You’re Not Providing Value (or Maybe It’s Just That Nobody Wants to Listen!)
Yes, social media is about self-promotion, but it shouldn’t only be about your business. Be sure to provide value, such as interesting articles or even just fun information about how a new product works or the company’s history. (Just don’t be too spammy!) make it interesting, and people will want to follow you for more.
3. You’re Not Consistent
Social media is not something that you set up once and check periodically—it needs to be an ongoing process that you and your team are dedicated to. You can’t just do it for a few days or weeks because people will stop following you if you’re not active regularly.
4. You Don’t Share What’s Happening Behind the Scenes
It’s not all about your products and services. Remember that social media is a great way to show people what you’re doing in your business: hosting an event, interviewing special guests, or showing them new features of your latest product. But do it in a fun and interesting way because you don’t want to just post a bunch of updates that people could find anywhere.
5. You Have Too Many Social Media Accounts
If you have several social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest—it’s important that your content is consistent across these accounts. If each one has a different voice and they’re all over the place, people aren’t going to follow you. Pick one main forum and use it as your central hub so that people can easily find you and get information from you. The others are great resources for feeding new content back into your network but otherwise are overwhelming to potential followers.
6. You’re Not Converting Followers into Customers
You may have the best social media profile out there, but if you’re not converting those followers into customers, then it’s not doing much for your business. Use your social media marketing tools to get people interested and build a list—then turn those followers into customers by selling directly through your sites or blogs. You can even use affiliate programs to place ads on your blog and get paid a commission when someone buys from one of those products/services.
If you’re not sure how to bring in the money, use something like Shopify to create your own eCommerce site—it’s easy and has great deals. With these suggestions, you’ll be able to grow your business on social media in an effective way that works for you!
7. You Don’t Segment Your Audience
If you want all of your Twitter followers to read every single article you tweet out, you should probably rethink your strategy. Using a scheduling service is great, but it’s also important to tailor your posts for different audiences. Segmenting will help with that and ensure that the people who most want to see what you’re tweeting are actually getting it.
8. You’re Not Using the Right Tools for the Job
In today’s business environment, you need to have a lot of tools in your toolbox—especially if you want to take advantage of all that social media has to offer. There are scheduling services, analytics, and RSS feed readers that can help you keep track of multiple accounts. Always be on the lookout for new tools that would make your life easier.
9. You Don’t Have Someone Measuring and Reporting Back
If you want to succeed with social media, it’s important to have someone—maybe even a couple of people —who can stay on top of what’s going on and report back about what’s working and what isn’t. If you set up a social media plan that will help your business, you should create some goals and benchmarks on how to measure success. And once you have all of these elements in place, think about what other platforms or tools might be able to help your business reach more customers.
Final Thoughts – Don’t Forget the Basics!
Yes, social media is important. But don’t forget the basics: create a plan, research and build your audience, be consistent and always look for new ways to engage with them…and then rinse and repeat.
