Social media marketing offers many unique opportunities to reach potential customers and increase traffic. Too often, many businesses rush onto social media thinking it is an easy way to increase profit and don’t realise that if not managed correctly, it could damage your brand’s reputation. Here are some of the most common social media mistakes your small business should avoid at all costs.
- Not having a strategy
A big mistake many businesses make with their social media marketing is not having a clear strategy to follow and underestimating the effort involved. Maximising the success of your social media marketing involves scheduling, monitoring, tracking and setting goals. Failing to track and analyse your results means you can miss out on finding ways to improve your future posts. - Inconsistent activity
Social media provides an additional channel for engaging with your audience including customer support. Failing to promptly respond to your followers or being inactive for a long period of time can have a negative impact on your business. - Focusing on quantity not quality
Be careful focusing all your energy on gaining followers if they aren’t truly interested in your business. You will see a much greater return on investment if you target valuable people who you can convert into paying customers. - Constantly promoting your products
Too many businesses fail to engage with their audience and post too many brand mentions. Social media shouldn’t only be used as a selling tool. Try to build a relationship with your followers rather than solely pushing your marketing message. Try using the 80/20 rule where 80% of your posts should be engaging and relatable while the remaining 20% should be promotional. - Focusing on the wrong channels
For small businesses it is beneficial to start out on a couple of channels that your core target audience use first rather than spreading out across many platforms which may not be valuable to your business. Unless you have someone to manage all of your social media accounts, focus your efforts on building a couple of key channels which suit your business.
If you need assistance with managing your social media accounts, the experienced team at Clarity Marketing can help. We will work with you to determine the most appropriate strategy for your business, and the best way for you to reach your customers. Give us a call on 1300 060 204 or submit an online enquiry.