7 Common Social Media Mistakes
Your Social Media Presence
You never get a second chance at a first impression. This used to just relate to the first time you met someone, when you only had to be conscious of your physical presence: what you were wearing, how firm your handshake was, and what you said. However, more often than not, your first impression of a person or a business now isn’t physical – it’s digital.
With high-speed internet at the tip of our fingers at any given moment, we can look up anyone or anything the moment we hear about them. Social media has given us the power to glimpse into the lives of a person or corporation before even meeting them — which affects whether we decide to meet them or not.
This is why it’s imperative to put your best (digital) foot forward. To help you do so, here are some common social media blunders companies make and some ways to combat them.
- No Defined Brand
Your brand is who you are; it’s imperative to stay true to that. With so much nonsensical clutter on News Feeds, it’s important to cultivate a strong brand to cut through the noise of social media and reach your audience.
A few ways to define your brand are having a distinct voice in your captions, using a common theme for social graphics and posts, and uploading only relevant content. For example, ANKR is a digital marketing agency. We want to focus on topics like digital marketing tips, industry news, and general information about our company. We also stick to our color scheme and font to ensure an omnipresence across our social media channels and our website.
To help avoid this mistake, you can create brand guidelines which dictate how your logo can be used, the specific color codes, and font types. This way, no matter which individual is creating the content itself, there are rules in place to keep everything on brand.
- No Plan
Once you know the message you want your social media to focus on, it’s imperative to plan content ahead of time. At ANKR, we typically plan month-by-month on a social media calendar. This ensures regular posting and variety.
Growth and creativity are fundamentals for constructing a strong, sustainable social media presence. These are achieved through planning. By planning out your social media content, you are more likely to post consistently, keep your audience interested, and you’ll be able to analyze the results of your content more effectively.
To start out, try planning out which holidays might be relevant for your brand to post about on social media. You can integrate your social media content with sales, specials, or company culture events you have planned. The best social media content is planned ahead, but appears timely and in-the-moment.
- Not Knowing Your Audience
Who are you talking to? With so much content filling up News Feeds, one of the best ways to make your brand stand out from the noise comes through understanding your digital audience. By distinguishing your target audience, you can start to curate content specifically for them and build your following.
If you do not know who your target audience is, ANKR can utilize tools such as Google Analytics and Audience Insights to help you identify what makes your audience tick!
- Incomplete Profiles
Failing to complete your social media profile is a huge missed opportunity. When a person first visits your social media page, the biography is the first impression they have of your business. You want your bio to convey what you do, but don’t be afraid to have a little fun and show some personality either.
Additionally, make sure you are using all your resources to maximize your search power. On Instagram and Twitter, you are able to add hashtags to your bio, as well as tag people. If you have a link to a blog or a website, be sure to include that in the link section. Including things like your industry on Facebook and Linkedin help with SEO as well, helping users find your profiles through organic search who may be looking for your business type.
Your profile picture on social media should be high quality and reflective of your brand. For example, ANKR’s profile photo is our logo. On Twitter and Facebook, make sure your cover photos (or videos, since Facebook allows cover videos now) are high-definition and reflective of your brand, too. Cover photos are a good way to promote events or convey more in depth what your company is and what they do.
Tip: Twitter cover photos are a little trickier, since the profile picture slightly overlaps the image. Keep any text or logos to the right side generally to plan for this type of cover photo layout.
Lastly, Twitter and Facebook allow you to have pinned posts. These posts sit at the top of your profile and are the first message consumers see. You want your pinned post to be the most important piece of information that you want visitors to take away from your page, whether that’s an ongoing sale or your top post overall that showcases what you’re all about.
- Posting Inconsistently
You can post too much. You can post too little. So what’s a happy medium that would satisfy even the pickiest users like Goldilocks?
Typically, posting 3-4 times a week is a nice medium. Of course, depending on your industry, this may waiver, so test your posting schedule out to see what your audience is most receptive to on social media. The goal is to keep up audience engagement and continually build your following.
When in doubt, check the competition out. See which of your industry leaders have a great following, and study the frequency with which they seem to post. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just find the sweet spot to get your brand rolling.
- Not Utilizing Network Tools
Each social network offers unique tools. For example, you can go live, post stories, run polls, and react, rather than just offering a “like”, depending on which platform you’re utilizing. Dive into each channel and explore what they have to offer and how those tools can help you engage your audience and boost your business. Here’s a quick rundown on some of the cool instruments different medias offer:
- Unresponsive Admins
If someone comments on a post or sends your business a message, respond! You want to create a conversation with your consumers and show them that you care. Implement their ideas, take their advice, and outwardly appreciate their feedback.
Appreciating your audience’s feedback goes both ways — you appreciate the positive, as well as the negative. Do not leave negative comments sitting there; if there is a concern you can resolve, let them know. If there are concerns you can’t resolve, direct them to the best place possible or ask them to message you directly so you can discuss the issue and figure out the best course of action.
Moving Forward
If your business falls victim to these mistakes, it isn’t the end of the world. Your social media presence can be improved at any time by implementing some of the quick fixes we discussed above.
If you feel lost and don’t know where to start, ANKR can help! We’re brand storytellers with a knack for optimizing your social profiles to maximize engagement. You can contact us here.
