You work so hard at what you do and it’s so challenging to get new followers, new views, and engagement. Today we’re going to talk about the mistakes you’re making that are hurting you online. Let’s jump right in!

 

1. Lack of engagement

You’ve established a page but the information is not up to date and it looks like you got either bored or sidetracked and abandoned your page. Or you do have posts on your page but when people comment there’s crickets. After you work so hard to get that follower, to get that like, you’ve got to keep it. The best way to keep it is to respond. Sometimes it’s as simple as liking the comment. You don’t have to respond personally to every single comment, but it’s really nice if you do (unless you’re a massive brand with thousands of followers).

 

You especially want to respond to the messages that are sent directly to your page. This is a big pet peeve for me, I find it super frustrating how many folks just don’t monitor their engagement at all. Instagram is a sneaky little thing where you don’t get those notifications like you do on Facebook. So it’s important to check your direct messages and to check your page messages every day.

 

2. Frequency of posting

This can go either way, it can be for over-posting or under-posting. Over-posting is more than two times a day normally. Now, if you have a tremendously engaged page and your audience is right there with you, you can post multiple times a day. However, most people don’t have that. For folks who have less than a thousand, once a day is probably going to do it. If you have more than a thousand, then you might want to think about pumping it up to twice a day. I have a page with 25,000 followers on it and they don’t tolerate posting more than once or twice a day.

 

Conversely, if you don’t have enough posts — if you have less than three posts a week — it makes your page look abandoned.

 

Over- and under-posting goes for all the platforms, although you can post a ton more on Twitter. But you can wear people out.

 

3. Being too “sales-y”

Here’s an example: I love the real estate community, I really do. However, some real estate agents have a reputation for being super sales-y. Because a few people have done it, if you’re in real estate you need to combat it extra hard. Don’t just have listing, listing, listing. Sprinkle in some content! What’s the football schedule like for the high school in your area, where do you get the best muffins, who’s the person to call if your sink needs to be repaired — real estate agents have to be community leaders and generate content on all your platforms.

 

For everybody, it’s the holiday season and there is so much content for your platforms. November is Men’s Health Awareness, you have all the cool holiday decor, recipes, there’s so much information. You don’t have to be all sales all the time.

 

4. Boring or repetitive

Boring is when you share the same post on Instagram that you share on Facebook every single day, and because you’re pushing it from one to the other the hashtags are still on it. Boring. Boring is listing, listing, listing, open house. Boring is when you post the same piece of information over and over. If the weather’s bad you might want to talk about the weather, but you sure don’t want to do it every day.

 

It’s important to have something fun. If you’re funny, be funny! If you’re not, leave it to the professionals! Engage your personality. To be, part of not being boring is just being who you are. People really seem to relate when you let your personality shine through.

 

5. Content that isn’t relevant to your page

Some industries, like the aforementioned real estate, have a broad reach. They can talk about a lot of different things, like decor and safety and where’s the best restaurant. You might not want to talk about politics, although posting locations of polling places is fine. There is content that should be kind of off-limits, and it does need to be brand-related.

 

However, brand-related also means you. It’s very important to inject yourself into your brand — you are your brand. I see engagement increase all the time when the person we’re posting for allows us to put their picture or some of their personal information in. If you like to fish — and I understand there are people that do! — inject that into your brand. If you are a baker, a crazy cat lady or dog owner, it’s okay to have that kind of stuff integrated into your brand sometimes because it’s who you are. If you’re a hard-core Alabama fan, posting about when kick-off is can be totally brand-related. So there is a lot of leeway here when you’re integrating yourself into your postings. Just don’t overshare, that’s a huge turn-off. Nothing about anything that goes into or comes out of your body. Nope!

 

These five reasons apply across all platforms. Conversely, the way to gain more followers and likes is to engage your community, be a community resource, and be yourself. People know if you’re genuine. I’m kind of goofy and I don’t ever try to hide that and that works for me because it’s who I am. Lean into it! If you’re serious, be serious. Be true to yourself and bring value to your end user and the sales will be there.