To get the results you need from social media marketing, you need to make a long-term commitment and plan to invest time and hard work into your efforts. Planning your strategy, testing your tactics and measuring your results can help you use social media to your advantage. You should also avoid the following four mistakes that can cause your social media marketing to fails.
You Don’t Have a Goal
Venturing into the realm of social media marketing without a specific goal almost guarantees your failure. You have no direction and no way to determine whether your efforts succeed.
cRegardless of whether you decide that you want to increase traffic to your website or boost public awareness of your brand or try to achieve something else, define your goal and stay focused on it as you work.
You will also need to identify the specific metrics you are going to track and choose the appropriate tools to analyze your data. Tools such as SumAll, Buffer or Followerwonk can help you track your metrics.
You Don’t Know Who Your Audience Is
Businesses make one of the biggest marketing mistakes when they fail to define their audience, resulting in unfocused, random social media campaigns that produce few, if any, results.
One of the best ways you can identify and understand your audience is by conducting marketing surveys. They can help you learn about your customers’ habits and needs, and then you can tailor your social media activities to reach them.
You’re Not Engaging with Your Audience
Some businesses fail on social media because they never engage with their followers. This goes beyond just responding to all questions and comments.
To engage with your audience, you need to offer them something relevant and interesting. Share content that they love and help them solve their problems. Use storytelling to connect with your audience on a personal and emotional level.
When the social community sees the way you engage your visitors and customers, they recognize your brand as one that is active and authoritative.
You are Not Sharing Relevant Content
If you fail to post and share content that your audience values, you will fail at social media marketing. Avoid this problem by designing relevant content that meets the needs and preferences of your audience. When your content has relevance to the people that you want to reach, you improve their life and add value to the community.
Final Thoughts
Avoid the above social media marketing mistakes that often lead to failure. Instead, define your goals, identify and engage your audience and share valuable content. Your patience and hard work will reward you with measurable results.
Have you made any of these social media mistakes? What have you learned from your mistakes? You can leave your comments below.
About the author: John Porter is a Southampton-based freelance writer and a tech head, so he enjoys writing about new technology and likes to share software tips and tricks.