Why do you need Social Media Marketing?

We are going to talk about the 10 rookie mistakes that are killing you, online in your social media. These don’t have to be mistakes only made by rookies. We see businesses that have been on social media for years and are still making some of these mistakes. So why do you want to look professional and polished on social media? Let’s get into some of the numbers.

Social networking is the top online activity in the United States. The average American spends 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social media. There are 2.4 billion users on Facebook, there are a billion users on Instagram, there are 2 billion users on YouTube. And these are numbers from 2020. It’s grown even since then. There’s a ton of people that can see your products and services online.

Let me make expand on that. 64% of online shoppers say that a video on social media helps them make their decision. 77% of Twitter users appreciate a brand more when their tweet is responded to, and customers want a response within four hours. People are 2 times as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content. 40% of all mobile users are searching for a local business or interest. 1 in 10 mobile searches for local business information results in a purchase. 82% of buyers viewed at least 5 pieces of content from the vendor prior to purchase. 20% of people will read the text on a page but 80% of people will watch a video.

We’ve said it before. Video is super important. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads. So, if you are only using traditional marketing and you are not integrating digital marketing, you are throwing money away and you are losing leads. 71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others so it’s good for word of mouth. 21% of consumers say they unfollow brands that post repetitive or boring content. So, what are the mistakes that are killing you? What can you do to make your social media presence better?

Missing Contact Information

 You would think that we would not have to say this, but you would be surprised at how many people have no contact information listed. Think through this scenario with me. Somebody comes to your Facebook page or your Instagram. They love what you do. They want to buy your product. They think the service that you offer is amazing. They go to contact you so that they can purchase it. No phone number, no email address, no website. That is super frustrating. You want to make it as easy as possible because if you make it too hard to get in touch with you they’re going to go to the next business that makes it easy to get in touch with them. You really want to make sure all of your contact information is not only listed on all of your platforms but that it’s current.

No Strategy

You would never plan to go across the country to another state and get in the car and just take off driving and just hope that you make it there. No GPS, no map, no plan, you’re just going to drive and hopefully one day, you’ll end up there. That’s crazy! It’s the same when you don’t have a strategy. You have to have a social media strategy because if you don’t you won’t have focus. Without focus, you’re not going to have a plan or a schedule. That sets you up to have unrealistic expectations. You’re going to be expecting social media to work for you when you’re not actually working on a plan for your social media.

Not knowing your Audience

Who is your ideal audience? We want to market to your ideal customer. Don’t say, “everybody.” Everybody is not your ideal audience. Even if everyone can use your product or benefit from your service, everyone is not your ideal audience. There is no way that you can effectively market to the entire world. What you have to do is figure out who most likely is going to buy your product or service. One way you can do this is to check your insights. Look at who’s already on your page and already purchasing. Are they 18 to 35-year-olds? Are they 45 to 65-year-olds? Are they predominantly male? Are they predominantly female? Where do they live? What areas are they from? It’s a lot easier to market to 18 to 35-year-old women in Birmingham, than it is to market to the world. You really want to niche down your target audience so that you can provide the best marketing for your business.

Not knowing the Platform

This is a huge mistake. Each of the social media platforms is different. You have to market for your platform. You don’t want to go on YouTube and post a 15-second video. That’s great for TikTok or Instagram reels. That’s where you want to put that content, but you don’t want to put a 15-second video on YouTube. You don’t want to put a whole bunch of text on Instagram because it is a very graphic-heavy platform. You don’t want to just put a picture that’s nothing but text. You have to know your platform. A great way to do this is just to look at what other successful businesses are doing. Look at brands that you’ve heard of that are marketing well and see what kind of posts they’re doing.

Giving Your Voice to the Wrong Person

If you are a super conservative bank and you are dealing with people’s financial information, you probably don’t want the person running your social media accounts to be snarky or have that kind of attitude. Here at Social U, we like humor. We like to be a little snarky. That fits our brand, but you have to go with what fits your own brand. People know when you’re not being you and people will know when it’s not authentic.

Too Much Too Fast

Trying to take on too many platforms at once can be a big mistake. Do you need to be on all the platforms? Probably not, unless you’re a social media company. Maybe two, maybe three if you can handle that, but I would much rather see you do one platform really well than do three really inconsistently and poorly. If you’re on too many platforms, that’s a lot of content and if you can’t produce that amount of content, that’s going to hurt you.

One of the things that we hate to see is cross-posting. If I post a certain picture on Instagram today and post the same picture on Facebook today, what is that telling my audience? It is telling them they only need to be following you on one of these platforms. They don’t need to be on both, because they’re just going to get the same information on both. Even if you have something that’s super awesome, and you want to share it on both platforms, wait a week. Post it on Instagram today, and a week from now post it on Facebook with a different caption. Just change it up a little bit. Put some space in between so people don’t feel like they’re getting the same experience on every platform.

Also, people underestimate how long it’s going to take to do their social media and how much work is really involved. As a social media specialist, people love to tell me, “so you get paid to play on Facebook all day.” Yes, I do get paid to be on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and all of the other platforms, but it is definitely work. You have to have the strategy, you need a content schedule, you need to plan out your posts, you need to schedule those posts. You can’t underestimate how long it’s going to take. You have to get help if you need it. If you are underwater with all that you have to do, you’re overwhelmed, and you find that you are doing more digital marketing and social media than doing your job, that’s a problem. If you are a car salesman and you are spending more time trying to update Facebook than you are selling cars, you need to get help. That’s a surefire way to know that you need someone to help.

Repeating the same message

You can reuse content, but you need to wait several months before you ever reuse it. You don’t need to do it all the time because it shows people that you have no strategy, you haven’t done your research, you’re not creative, and you’re not getting results. That’s not the kind of reputation that you would like to have. You want them to think that you are on the cutting edge of your industry, that you are a professional, that you have put in the work, and done the research. This could also be posting repetitive content. If all you post is the same type of post every day that’s probably going to get boring to people. People can only stand so many pictures of different cars for sale.

Not checking your Analytics

 You may think that what you are posting is doing well but, if you don’t check your analytics, you will not know for sure if it is working for you. You have to check your analytics. Find out what is not working and stop posting it. Even if the thing that isn’t working is something that you love to do, keep it on your personal profile. If you love it and you still want to do it, that’s awesome. Do it on your personal profile. But if it’s not working for your business, cut it out of your business strategy. You need to focus on the things that get you the results. You want to post the things that people want to see so that you get that traffic and you have those conversions. Check your analytics at least quarterly, to see what you need to reevaluate?

Having Bad Posts

Don’t use bad images. We saw an example of this where someone for the Fourth of July thought they were posting a fireworks image. It was actually the challenger explosion. That was the wrong picture. Another example of a bad photo is using a copyrighted image. A copyrighted image tells people that you’re lazy and you’re not willing to get your own photos. Just stealing things off the internet can sometimes get you sued. If you’re using low-quality photos, that’s really bad. If the image is pixelated, blurry, or has weird borders around it that are cut off, do not use them. There are too many free sites where you can get quality stock photos that are royalty-free. Canva is a great example of a place to get free photos. They have tons of images.

Another bad post is being too salesy. You don’t want everything to come across like a commercial ad. Nobody wants to be sold something every time they look at your social media. We like to say to follow the 80 /20 rule. You should be educating, informing, and entertaining 80% of the time and 20% of the time you should be selling. 80% of the time you need to be putting tips, industry news, humor, and things that add value to your end-user because if you’re adding value and not just selling to them they’re going to come to you. On the flip side of that, you don’t want to never sell. You need to use your social media to let people know about your products. You don’t want to do it all the time, but you do want to let people know that you offer these services. If you offer a service or product that you think is good then you’re out actually helping them out by telling them about it.

Be sensitive to tragedy as well. You do not want to be pushing a sale when there is a national tragedy happening. Be aware of your audience. If you want to promote a way to help with a tragedy, then please do so but remember that these are not the time to capitalize on a tragic event.

Another way to have a bad post s trying to pick a fight. Do not do this. It does not look very professional and it doesn’t help anything. You are a professional and it is best not to engage with the people trolling on your page. Now, if someone comes to you with a legitimate concern, you absolutely want to address that. If someone comes on and they are being rude and you respond to that, all that’s going to happen is that they are going to continue and you are going to attract more trolls because that’s what they want. They want that engagement, so don’t give it to them. On the flip side that, someone who isn’t a troll leaves you comments, you do need to respond. If I take the time out of my day to go on your post and say something nice, the least you can do is like it. Just tap that little heart and like it or say thank you. It doesn’t have to be a paragraph. It doesn’t have to be some big speech that you write out. Just a thank you, we’re so glad, thanks for the support, and things like that make a huge difference. to your end-user.

Another thing that makes a bad post is technical errors. If you don’t think anybody’s reading your misspelled posts, you’re wrong. Bad grammar is a big no-no. A big one is also hashtag misuse. There’s a couple of different ways you can misuse hashtags. One way is using them on the wrong platform. If you’re on Facebook, you don’t need hashtags. It’s just going to annoy people if you put twenty hashtags at the end of your Facebook post. If you don’t use hashtags on Instagram and Twitter you’re not going to be seen by people that don’t already follow you. That’s where you want to use the hashtags. Make sure you research any hashtags that you use. Sometimes you don’t realize that something is different than what you think. Hashtag research is very important to protect your business. An entire group of people could be using that hashtag for something that would be very inappropriate for your business. Make sure the hashtags you are using do not already belong to another business. You don’t want to steal other people’s hashtags.

A bad mistake that gets a lot of people is when you post rude, political, or religious posts that are not affiliated with your brand. Yes, religious posts are fine if this does promote your brand. If you are a politician, you are going to post political posts. If you are a bakery, there is no reason you should be posting political or religious posts. Save that for your personal page, not your business page. I would even be cautious on your personal page. If you’re going to post your views, post them in a polite way, not in an inflammatory way because there are people that may check out your personal page to see if they want to do business with you and you don’t want to alienate those people.

Getting Overwhelmed and Quitting

Getting overwhelmed and quitting is a big mistake. If you get overwhelmed and quit, you are missing out on digital marketing, which as we talked about before is cheaper than traditional marketing and generates three times more leads. You’re going to be inconsistent. Don’t stretch yourself too thin. If you can handle one platform and that’s it, pick the one that is best suited for your industry. If you can only handle posting three times a week, don’t try to post five times a week. If you can handle it five times a week, that’s great but don’t do what makes you overwhelmed because you’ll be more tempted to quit.

Another way to keep from getting overwhelmed is to create a content calendar so that you’re not just waking up every day and thinking, “what can I post today?” You don’t want to do that. That is really stressful. If you’re waking up every day trying to figure out what you’re going to post on each platform that is chaotic. Make a calendar and plan your content out in advance, and then schedule it. It’s a lot easier to sit down on one day a week and schedule out the entire week and then not have to worry the rest of the week about your social media than it is to have to get on it every day and post. If you’re on Facebook and Instagram, you can schedule both of those out in Creator Studio or Business Suite straight through Facebook. Through these programs, you can schedule out a week’s worth of Facebook posts and a week’s worth of Instagram posts. You can now schedule your stories as well, which is huge. This will keep you from getting overwhelmed and burning out. If you find that you’re still overwhelmed, then that’s when you need to bring somebody in. That is what we do. If you hate doing your social media. Don’t just not post, get help. Get somebody else to do it for you.

Be Prepared and You’ll Do Great

It can be super easy to make these mistakes if you don’t have a plan, you don’t have a schedule and you don’t take time to schedule those things out. We want your business to thrive in the digital marketing industry. If you are prepared, being consistent, and putting out good content, you will do just fine. Social U is here to help!