Social media is all the rage. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, Pinterest… the list goes on. For adults and kids alike, social media is a place many people go to learn, be entertained and be consumed – whether it’s for minutes or hours in a day.
For that reason, social media marketing is an increasingly crucial part of the marketing ecosystem. There are just so many people using these platforms that it is impossible and unwise to ignore the power they have to amplify a marketing message.
With that said, crucial mistakes are still being made that are impacting the true potential of social media as a marketing tool and we’re here to help fix that.
Avoid these three mistakes to ensure your social media marketing efforts are successful from here on out.
1. Prioritizing Content Overload Instead of Engagement
Social media may seem like an area where it is a good idea to continually push your content – which it is, to an extent, because you want eyes on your content and offerings – but you want to make sure that your top priority when social media marketing is actually engagement.
The most common answer to the question of “why did you join social media as a teen?” is some variation of “I wanted to keep in touch with people” – whether it was friends, family or other people.
This is an important principle to keep in mind and apply when performing social media marketing, because audience-building through engagement is really the fuel behind effectively spreading whatever message you desire to spread. The more people you engage with, the more likely it is that they will grasp your brand and want to spread your message.
2. Dismissing Measurement and Monitoring of Social Media
Social media can sometimes be treated as a “set it and forget it” medium.
Be honest: How often have you or someone you know posted something on Facebook and then forgotten about it until receiving a comment on it three days later?
As you perform marketing through social media, it is important to continually monitor the performance of your social media posts and measure it through analytics such as reach, shares etc.
Getting into this habit will ensure that you never forget to switch up your social media strategy if you see that a particular type of post, for instance, is not effectively being shared by your desired audience – allowing you to constantly improve what is not working and amplify the strategies that do produce your desired results, for the ultimate benefit of your business.
3. Not Understanding the Time, Effort and Resources Required
For as powerful as social media is, marketing on these platforms is treated as a simple task by a lot of companies.
The most compelling content on social media – pictures, videos, blogs etc. – takes serious time and effort to create. Instead, social media marketing is too often treated like a slapped-together project you can complete in five minutes, no different than the awful macaroni necklace gift your child brought home for you from school last week.
Don’t underestimate the time, energy, resources and effort it takes to effectively perform social media marketing because poor understanding of these requirements will lead to a poor output… guaranteed.
Social media marketing is an art and a science. By that, we mean that it takes the precision and exactness of a science experiment but also requires the nuance and care of a beautiful piece in the louvre. Take extra caution in your social media marketing by following these tips (and avoiding these mistakes) to make the most of your efforts in the present and in the future.
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