When you are new to social media it’s easy to get caught up in the social media mistakes rabbit hole. Many beginners will make the same social media mistakes, that we’ve created a list of these common patterns. If your social media isn’t performing, take a few minutes to look at these most common social media mistakes so you can avoid them.
Be on every social media platform
A common social media mistake is thinking that you should be present on every social media platform at the very beginning. Many beginners think they should be on every network and try everything all at once, which leads to frustration if there are no results as they are spreading themselves too thin. This can lead to quick burnout, especially if you are a solopreneur or have a small team. Instead, focus on 2-3 social media platforms on which you can consistently be active on. These social media platforms should be chosen strategically from your target audience research, for example, you wouldn’t choose TikTok or Snapchat as your social media platforms if you’re focusing on 50 years and older for your target audience. Make sure to research your target audience and the social media platforms before you start your business social media accounts.
Focus on one social media platform
Many entrepreneurs will make the mistake to solely focus on one social media platform for their social media marketing strategy. This is troublesome because it’s putting all your eggs in one basket. What would happen if your social media account got hacked and you unfortunately couldn’t recover it? Or if your account gets deactivated for some reason or the social media platform gets banned all of a sudden, as we almost saw with TikTok back in August 2020. In any case, it’s detrimental to focus solely on one social media account. Our recommendation is to focus on 2-3 social media platforms and use the platform to drive traffic to your email list and website.
Focus on 10K followers
A common social media goal is to get to 10K followers. This is a social media mistake as it’s not measuring the right numbers to start organic conversations and start building trust among your target audience. Many beginners believe that 10K followers is the key number to generate leads and sales, and this has led to businesses purchasing followers. This is another mistake as purchasing followers are typically bots or inactive accounts that will not engage with your profile. Forget about followers as an important metric, and focus on engagement as a social media metric to measure.
Posting just to post
When creating social media goals, it’s easy to create a goal based on the number of posts you need to publish per week. However, this can lead to the next social media mistake which is focusing on quantity rather than quality. It’s important to stay consistent but, more importantly, to deliver quality and solution-driven content. Avoid posting just to post, and focus on creating content that your target audience wants to hear. If you are feeling lost about what to post, ask your audience for ideas by creating a poll, survey, or doing some deeper research calls.
Not engaging with your audience
Don’t just post and ghost. Social media is a social platform, and if someone follows you, comments on your posts, or shares your posts, these are perfect opportunities to engage with your audience. A social media mistake would be not to engage with your audience when they are clearing interacting with your profile and posts. You can send a personal message when someone follows you or shares your posts. If someone comments on your post, make sure to respond to the comment and start an organic conversation. Many beginners will leave comments unanswered and these are opportunities left on the table for a business. You want to take advantage of every conversation, because that can lead to a sale, referral, partner, etc. Don’t leave comments or direct messages unanswered, engage with your audience.
It’s easy to make these social media mistakes, but we hope by sharing the 5 common social media mistakes you can avoid falling into these traps. Have you made these social media mistakes before? Share with us in the comments.
Leave a Comment