If you’ve been reading our Beeman blog posts, you know how much emphasis we put on the importance of keeping your social media pages active! With over 3.6 billion users worldwide, social media is a must for promoting your business online and keeping up in the digital world.1
Besides just being active, it’s important that your social media marketing is aligned with your brand and upholds the same level of high standards as your other marketing materials.
Even simple and seemingly harmless mistakes can have a long-term negative impact on you and your business. We’ve compiled a list of some of the top social media marketing mistakes to help you recognize and avoid potential pitfalls that could be harmful to your practice’s online presence!
Failing to Define Your Target Audience
Trying to create content for a general audience doesn’t have the same level of effectiveness as curated content created with a specific audience in mind. While you may drive some engagement in your posts by following trends or focusing on general topics, you’ll be less likely to get conversions as a result. Clearly defining your target audience makes it easier to craft the right messaging that will produce results.
Lack of Professionalism
You wouldn’t order a new sign with your business name to hang outside without proofreading and signing off on the draft first, and you should have the same level of care and attention to detail with your social media! Spelling errors, inconsistent fonts or formats, and even unverified facts can all hurt your business’s credibility with your customers. Your social media should be consistent with your brand’s look and feel and have the same commitment to quality as the rest of your marketing.
Lackluster Visuals
Having good visuals goes hand-in-hand with professionalism. As an established business, people viewing your pages expect to see clear and professional images that relate to the content you post. Using low-quality, irrelevant, or even overly filtered images can make your page seem unprofessional and untrustworthy.
It’s also a common mistake to forget to include visuals altogether. No matter the topic, blocks of solid text will scare people away. Social media posts should be attention-grabbing and engaging. No post should read like a research paper. Adding relevant and visually appealing pictures helps social media users stay interested and focused on your message.
Being Inconsistent
Consistency is key. Posting three times a day and then going radio silent for a month does not lead to social media success. The latest social media statistics in 2021 show that an average of two hours and 25 minutes are spent per day per person on social media.2 Out of sight means out of mind in today’s social media world, where competition for users’ attention is ever-growing even as people are spending more time online.
Having a strategy and pre-planning your posting schedule is a great way to ease the stress of finding the time or remembering to post day by day. This can also help you recognize important events ahead of time, such as holidays or upcoming sales events that need to be marketed in advance.
Not Engaging With Your Audience
Even if you have great high quality and engaging posts, if you’re not staying on top of the engagement, you’re hurting your potential for new or returning followers and clients. Leaving questions and comments on your social media posts can make people feel like they don’t matter or aren’t being heard, which hurts your relationships overall. Responding as quickly as possible is crucial for building relationships with your audience and establishing your credibility.
Too Much Promotional Content
While it can be tempting to share every new product and feature, customers won’t want to follow an account that only wants to sell them something. Instead of using your social media only to generate leads or nurture sales, it’s important to offer content that offers value to your followers.
Educational posts, industry insights, related news, or a look behind the scenes are all examples of content that will support your business without turning your followers away.
Not Tailoring Content to Each Platform
You craft an awesome post, find the perfect image, copy, paste and get to work sharing on all your social media platforms. What you didn’t consider was that Twitter limits the number of characters for each post and half your copy that was perfect for Facebook got cut off in your tweet!
It’s important to proofread not only for grammar but also for formatting, especially with different social media platforms. Keep in mind that spacing, emoji’s and even image sizes all have to be adjusted to match the specifications of different platforms.
