The top social media mistakes to avoid

Nowadays social media is an integral part of many companies’ digital marketing strategy. Nevermind the size of the firm, it’s one of the best digital platforms to propel businesses forward.

For new and established businesses alike, it’s easy to fall into a social media trap of making the same mistakes over and over again. So here’s a list of the most common ones for your business to avoid:

1. Not having a social media strategy

Businesses that do not have a targeted social media strategy don’t tend to deliver a clear message to their audience. A strategy must be in place to execute a successful social media marketing plan.

2. Creating accounts on all of the platforms too soon

Many companies are on a number of social networks, even though they don’t have enough quality content to fill them all. Focus your social media strategy on a few social networks that you can make a strong impact on each.

3. Paying for fake followers

Even though having thousands upon thousands of fans might look good at a glance, it won’t improve user engagement or increase ROI. The key to engagement is to focus on building genuine consumer relationships, rather than focusing on numbers.

4. Talking too much about your own brand

It’s fine to talk about other things going on in the world other than just your brand. If you take time out to interact with your audience, they will tend to reciprocate when you do start to promote yourself.

5. Using excessive and irrelevant hashtags

Even though the use of hashtags can help your business become more visible, it’s not an excuse to go hashtag crazy. Keep your hashtags down to a sensible number and keep them relevant.

6. Sharing too much in a small window

Posting one piece of content after another in a short space of time can turn your followers off enough to ‘unlike’ you. Instead, try to share your posts on a regular, consistent basis – online scheduling tools like Buffer and Hootsuite are perfect for this.

Read and comment on the original Social Media Today article.