In our world of Social Media where the market is constantly changing it is important to keep the basics in check. Without its businesses can’t run a successful social media marketing campaign. Whether you are a small, medium or large business, keeping the basics are still important. Here are five common mistakes businesses make in their social media campaigns.
1. Not Having Goals
A business with no direction is no business at all.
I know what you are thinking, what kind of business doesn’t have a goal? Well, when it comes to social media, most start-up businesses don’t have a clear and effective social media goal. Goals are important because they serve as a stepping stone to what destination your business is trying to reach.
It’s easy for people to tell if a social media business page has clear goals or not. How can people tell, you ask? Simple, your social media page is or lacks organization. It is either full of noninteractive content or lacks content in general. It doesn’t have strategic promos or anything that can drive attention to your business.
The page may have little or poor audience interaction. It may be full of non-engaging content, which a lot of people consider as spam content. This leads us to the next topic
2. Spamming
People don’t like spam, don’t do it
Everybody hates spammers yet a considerable number of start-up pages on Facebook still do Why? It is because they are abusing the algorithm to gain more attention to their page. You see, posting multiple contents a day can lead to higher search results.
That’s why you see pages that have a lot of content but little to no engagements. Rather than following this method that only hurts your page in the long run. You should focus on producing high-quality content for your audience. This will make them want to stay engaged on your page. It is better to have fewer posts that generate genuine engagement rather than spamming nonengaging content to try and trick the algorithm.
In the long run, people will start to associate your brand with spam and will just scroll you’re your posts even if your content is showing up for them.
Additionally, when the algorithm sees that people are engaging with your content, it is more likely to put your page on engaged viewers’ walls and newsfeed. This is where you can reach your viewer friends and network. This is called organic traffic.
Check out our post on Quality Content and Organic Traffic for more info.
3. Faking it
People don’t like fakes
People are attracted to success and new shiny objects. But not everything you see online is real. Because of technology and Social Media, it is even easier to pretend you are something or someone that you are not. And while people love success, on the flipside people hate dishonesty and fakes.
I think a lot of this has to do with the phrase “Fake it, till you make it!” which I believe is really misunderstood. What I think this really means to simply act as if you were your future successful version of yourself. This is so you could go through the process that will eventually take you to that success. You don’t become successful without changing so it’s like applying the changes you need to do to become successful. It is not actually lying and be fake and pretends that you are successful already when in fact you aren’t yet.
Another point we should look at is marketing and positioning. Marketing should be used for good; it is to allow you to put your best foot forward. To let your potential customers, know about your brand and how you could be of service. Unfortunately, it is also quite easy to abuse.
Unethical marketers will prey on human emotions and use them to trick people into buying into a proposition. This has a negative effect on marketing itself and it makes it harder for people to trust brands and businesses in general, especially brands that are just starting out.
In today’s world information travels fast. And that isn’t true for just good things. In fact, bad news seems to travel faster. So, what if you try and fake your success and are caught being pretentious. You will immediately lose credibility and potentially destroy your brand completely. It really isn’t worth the risk.
Now the good news is people also love to see honesty and people and brands being genuine. It seems like it’s a lot harder to see these nowadays with all the bad marketing and fake stuff online. In fact, I believe since bad marketing is so prevalent, people have made a shift and have been searching for authenticity.
People also love to see growth. There is nothing wrong with being authentic, say that you are new, then show what it is that makes your brand unique. Over time people will see your authenticity and growth and they will associate that with your brand. And that carries a different type of energy that people will be attracted to.
4. Not Being Consistent
Keep posting content on a consistent basis
Being inconsistent is a recipe for failure. A lot of businesses fail because of it. There are several factors that can affect the effectiveness of your online marketing. We’ll talk about two main factors here, quality and Frequency.
Quality has to do with how you are marketing. Are you being consistent with your branding? Does your website match your social media platforms and other digital media or are they all over the place? Is your content aimed at your target market? Are you producing quality content that provides value to your audience or are you just posting something to satisfy the algorithms?
Frequency has to do with how you are managing your marketing. Are you releasing your content in a consistent manner? Are you posting at the optimal times of the day? Are you posting enough content to remain visible? Are you able to engage your audience? Answer questions and reply to comments consistently? Both areas of focus above work hand in hand. Think of your online presence as similar to a physical store. If your store isn’t open during a consistent time, do you think people will see it a reliable place to come to when they need your product or service? What if your store doesn’t update their offerings, with promos, etc.? Do you think it will entice more business? What about if someone walks in to check out your store and no one greets them? That wouldn’t really be good for your business now would it?
Your online platforms are like your digital stores. You need to make sure you are consistently available and actively promoting. This is really a large topic and we can’t fit everything in one post. If you would like to learn more, we have several other articles that may help you. Including tips and ideas on what content to create.
5. Not Checking Your Analytics
Checking your analytics can go a long way in social media
This is one of the greatest mistakes that you can make. Many businesses new to digital marketing fail to use analytics because they simply don’t know-how. They either don’t know how important it is or maybe just don’t know how to use the data they gather. Marketing data plays a huge role in making successful campaigns. The data gathered will give you insights into how your audience is interacting with your online platforms. You should analyze it in order to create better marketing ads for your business.
You gain your data through customer feedback, Facebook analytics, and Google analytics, and other similar data gathering tools. Successfully managing the information you collect and putting it to good use has a direct effect on your profit margin and sales on a huge scale.
Check your analytics regularly and consistently try to improve. Over time this will help your online platforms develop into avenues that drive customers to your business. Analytical data is the backbone of Digital Marketing, you cannot have a successful marketing campaign without it.
Lucky for you we are here to help you get passed these 5 common mistakes and so much more! Inquire today and one of our experts will get in touch to assist you.