Social media sites can be a very affordable, even free, way to promote your services and products or reach your customers. But too many people think it's as simple as opening a few accounts and occasionally posting. In that case, it will cost you time yet not deliver much in return.
Using social media effectively is easy, but we can make several common mistakes along the way. Here are five social media errors you can avoid to get better results from your online marketing.
Error #1: You don't define what you are promoting to whom and why
It's easy to get excited about social media, so businesses create accounts on every social media platform and then try to post content on all of them. But they don't create a schedule, can't keep up the pace, and don't produce the right content for a specific platform. They don't have goals for their social media.
Ask yourself what you want to gain from who and why that audience would care. 'What' can be more sales, more newsletter sign-ups, etc. 'Who' defines the people you are targeting. 'Why' defines if what you offer matters to them. These three answers give you a clear idea of goals and the best-suited social media platform. For example, you can promote accounting services (what) to financial officers (who) through posting informative articles (why) on LinkedIn, or promote designer cakes to sweet-toothed professionals by posting photos and videos on Instagram.
Error #2: You are on a social media platform because it's popular
It's tempting to join a popular social media platform, which can be a good idea. Those platforms are doing well for a reason. But if you join only because it's popular, you'll likely just waste your effort and resources.
This point relates to the above mistake: not knowing why you are on a specific platform or who you hope to reach. Yet, many businesses join a site like Facebook, Twitter or TikTok because everyone else uses it. They are there because it's popular. Well, popular is great, but it also means it's crowded. You won't stand out if you don't have goals or a plan. The plan can be straightforward. Maybe you are on Twitter because many of your customers will follow you there for announcements. You should have a purpose for being there other than it's popular.
Error #3: You just hire someone to do the job
You are very busy and can't attend to everything, so you hire people to handle certain aspects of your operations. Some of those, like cleaning, are things you can hand off completely. But other parts need your input and oversight, even if you delegate them to someone dependable.
Social media falls into the latter category. You can hire a social media manager but shouldn't stop paying attention to your social media goals. Do they understand your 'what', 'who', and 'why'? Does the choice of platforms, content, and frequency reflect your business? Are you happy with the type of content being posted? You don't have to run your social media accounts yourself, but pay attention to them and make sure you know what you expect from them.
Error #4: You are too impatient
Too often, companies jump onto social media, produce content, see low viewing figures, and give up. Yet, social media requires time to achieve success. Everyone is fighting for a piece of people's attention, which makes social media a game of patience.
Take the long view and be consistent. You don't have to post daily—it can be weekly or even every other day. However, it must be consistent, which looks good to audiences and attracts social media algorithms. Create a long-term schedule, planning when you'll post content. Use something like Google Calendar to set reminders and get into the rhythm of planning, creating, and posting content, or a paid service to help schedule multiple posts for different accounts. Check the analytics for trends and post timings to fine-tune your schedule and content.
Error #5: Too much fixation on algorithms
There is a lot of focus on 'the algorithm', a vague term describing how social media sites decide what content to show people. It can be easy to fixate on algorithms or complain that you are not getting exposure because an algorithm might have changed. But here's a different view: the algorithms don't matter that much for your business.
If you are a social media influencer, the social media platform is your business, and you want maximum exposure and growth as quickly as possible. But if you aim to promote your services and products, social media is a means to an end. It's more effective to focus on promoting your social media channels to customers, engaging with audiences via comments, and using online advertising. The consistency and relevance of your content are more important than whether an algorithm exposes it to new audiences. There are strategies to use content algorithms, but don't fixate on them unless you have a good reason. Quality always beats quantity when building long-term customers.
Once you follow these guidelines consistently you should start seeing an upward change in your social media fortunes. Remember though that you can boost your consistency even more with a reliable internet connection from Vodacom Business that will ensure you never miss a post or a comment. Also, you can find more advice and ideas to help your SME grow with this content from V-Hub.
