Seven Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes Among New Business Owners

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Very often, small business owners start businesses based on their personal expertise and experience. Social media marketing is not usually one of those fields.

As a result, it is either delegated to “someone who knows social media” (usually a younger person who uses social networks) or it is added to the bottom of a very long list of tasks for the owner.

In both cases, the outcome is often less than ideal, and the results are either non-existent or mediocre.

Here are the things you need to keep in mind:

7 Social media marketing mistakes to avoid.

1. Not knowing your target customer:

Social media is all about communication. It’s about sending a message. That message could be than you understand their situation, or that you know what you are doing, or that you are pointing out misconceptions and false information.

But if you don’t know your target customer, you won’t know what matters to them, and your content will be unlikely to resonate with them.

2. Not having a plan or a strategy:

Social media marketing won’t be productive if you just keep throwing up random stuff. You need to have a strategy in terms of how you will attract potential customers or clients.

Look at the social media accounts of businesses similar to yours, who have been able to amass a decent following. Which patterns do you see in what they post? Which types of posts get the most engagement? Likes, comments and shares – along with watch time if you do video – all help you to gain more exposure on any given social network.

You can change the strategy if it doesn’t work out well enough for you, or find something better along the way – just don’t change it every week. However, you need a sensible plan on what to post, and what to focus on.

Between knowing your target customer and researching the social media accounts of successful peers, you will have a pretty good idea of what works. From there it is a matter of deciding which message you want to spread, and focusing on that.

3. Not being active on social media:

There are two reasons why you need to be on social media yourself (or have someone with some knowledge do it on your behalf):

a. Almost all social networks reward you for actively using the platform in various ways. While the effort versus reward ratio differs from one network to the rest, the results speak for themselves.

b. If you don’t respond to comments and messages (ok, spam excluded), and never get involved in conversations (comment threads), people who see your content won’t associate it with an actual person. The moment you are seen as “a real person”, attitudes towards your content change – for the better.
4. Posting infrequently and inconsistently:

Each social network has its own algorithm which decides how much exposure you will get for the effort you put in. There are some similarities, but the execution varies.

For instance, if you post once a week on Linkedin, you can get away with it. But if you post once a week on Instagram, don’t expect any fireworks.

See how regularly your successful (on social media) peers are posting.

In addition to that, consistency is essential for establishing your brand. The more consistent you are, the more people come to expect your content at specific days and times. This is crucial for initial engagement from your fans, because the initial engagement also plays a large role in the future exposure of your content.

5. Not looking at your analytics:

Most small business owners who do their own social media marketing tend to be in a rush when doing it. They just want to get the post out and move on.

However, if you don’t look at the analytics for every post, you will never know what works and what not, and which types of posts or topics do so well that you need to create more like those.

6. Being overly promotional, or being overly social:

The two extremes of social media marketing: Only posting promotional material, or – on the other hand – posting too much personal stuff. Yes, adding the odd bit of personal stuff will help you look more real, but constantly posting selfies when you are selling plumbing services won’t bring your message across.

And if you only post ads, you will find that not many people interact with them unless you have built an engaged following first. And you won’t accomplish that by just posting ads (or selfies).

Provide value by offering information that matters to your ideal customer.

7. Don’t try to be “everywhere at once”:

Unless you have very deep pockets, and can afford to outsource it to people who know what they are doing, don’t try to be everywhere at once. Aside from being very difficult to do consistently, you will also be diluting your efforts – and your results.

Think logically: Would you rather have one thousand followers spread out across five social networks, or would you rather have 1,000 followers in one place, and have more people take notice of what you do, in one place?

Not to mention that focusing on one network for the start will allow you to learn everything you need to know about it, and master it much sooner than if you were spread out.

In conclusion:

Any one of these social media marketing mistakes will hold you back, and keep your new business from claiming its share of reach on the network you chose.

The more of these you can eliminate, the faster your audience will grow, and the sooner you will see revenue coming in from it.