Contents:
Mistake #1: Defining your audience too broadly / being on too many platforms
Mistake #2: Only posting “sales-y” posts
Mistake #4: Using the wrong tone (too many cooks in the kitchen)
Mistake #5: Inconsistent posting (not building up to the algorithm)
While social media is key to advertising in all industries, there are plenty of misconceptions about what it means to have a business social media presence. It’s not just posting a picture and adding a caption. You must find ways to connect with your target audience and build the relationship.
Let’s dig a little deeper and examine what we’ve identified as the five key mistakes in social media marketing and the best practices that fix them.
Mistake #1: Defining your audience too broadly/ being on too many platforms
At BSD, we often hear, “I want to reach everyone with our social media”. EVERYONE is not an audience; it’s just an unspecific and unhelpful goal.
Businesses should ask themselves: “Who is my key audience, and who is most likely to engage with my content?”
The Fix
You must identify your target audience to market yourself effectively on social media. Knowing who you want to target requires knowing your brand.
Let’s say you’re opening a seasonal ice cream shop on the Jersey Shore. Of course, you would love it if people from all over the nation tried your ice cream, but let’s be realistic. We can narrow our focus from:
- Nationwide Ice cream lovers to
- New Jersey Ice cream lovers to
- NJ shore towns to
- NJ shore town neighborhoods to
- Seasonal visitors (who love ice cream)
- Between the ages of X and Y
- Within a distance of Z miles
- Between the ages of X and Y
- Seasonal visitors (who love ice cream)
- NJ shore town neighborhoods to
- NJ shore towns to
- New Jersey Ice cream lovers to
The more specific you are, the more likely you are to reach your targeted audience.
Narrowing your audience and knowing them is a MUST for social media. If you know you offer aesthetically pleasing, luxurious ice cream; you will want to aim for that trendy/artsy audience who is often on social media and wants to post and tag your location. If you’re selling flavorful, affordable ice cream, you may want to target moms and families looking to keep everyone pleased while staying on a budget.
Not every social media platform will be right for your business. Make sure to research the demographics that tend to use each network and the types of content that perform well. For example, if you don’t have the resources to create video content, TikTok may not be for you. Similarly, if you’re trying to reach younger generations, stay away from Facebook.
Remember, “everyone” is not an audience choice.
Mistake #2: Only posting “sales-y” posts
The greatest thing about social media is that you can advertise in so many innovative ways. On social platforms, we get to be creative and add music, movements, transitions, colors, you name it. There is no need to make all posts sales-heavy.
Think about yourself as a social media user. Do you log on thinking, “I can’t wait to see all the ads as I unwind for a few minutes after a long day at work?” Absolutely not. You want to scroll to disconnect from the chaos of life, get your mind off things, laugh, share a meme, and relate to something you see on your feed.
Don’t get me wrong—sales posts can work, but who wants to see them every time?
The Fix
Switch it up. Make every post relatable, informative, entertaining, and eye-catching.
Guy Kawasaki once said that for every ten social media posts, only one should be a “hard sell”. It pays to know your audience and speak to them about what they care about. Then they will actually want to buy what you are selling.
Mistake #3: Not investing in social media ads
Many people think that posting frequently will reach a lot of people and spawn leads. This approach does work, but it’s often not enough in this competitive era of social media advertising. Since many businesses rely on social media marketing, there’s a lot of competition.
Paid social ads have some great perks for businesses. They help get your brand out there, reaching people who may not have heard of you. Plus, they can drive traffic straight to your website or landing page.
And the best part? You can choose exactly who sees your ads, targeting the right audience to connect with your brand. With paid advertising, your post is pushed to reach places it hasn’t reached before, allowing fresh new eyes to see it and ensuring it appears in every place possible within the app.
The Fix
Use social media ads best practices:
- Use ads to drive awareness to campaigns or initiatives
- Use ads to boost high-performing posts even more (double-down)
- Talk to social media pros to get more insights and metrics
Mistake #4: Using the wrong tone (too many cooks in the kitchen)
The tone is everything in social media. It can be a colossal miss when you don’t have the right tone or don’t deliver the tone your target audience wants to hear.
Have you ever just read a post and been able to guess what brand it’s coming from? Their writing and tone are so strong that they’re recognizable. Establishing a tone in social media is about delivering your message in a way the audience understands and can relate to.
When a company writes one post in the first person POV and then another in the third person POV, you can’t help but wonder, who is running this account?
Companies often have multiple people logged into their accounts, which is another mistake. You don’t want your post to sound different from your last one; making it sound like the copy follows the company’s voice guidelines (or at least comes from the same company) is crucial.
Let’s say a company’s finance team suddenly wants to write a post. It will sound very different from if the marketing team wrote it.
Think about it this way: It’s like making your grandmother’s lasagna without the recipe; it will never taste the same.
The Fix
Follow the recipe to make it like Nona used to. Keeping the tone and voice the same is key. It all leads to consistency, which is essential for gaining brand recognition. Have one person run your social media across accounts whenever possible, or at the very least, have the same person edit posts from multiple people to ensure they fit the brand’s voice guidelines.
Mistake #5: Inconsistent posting (not building up to the algorithm)
“Consistency doesn’t guarantee success on social. But inconsistency guarantees your failure.”
– @marketingharry via Threads.
The more you exercise, the stronger you become. Consistency works the same way in social media. It’s essential to post continuously, not just when the company is attending a tradeshow or hiring but on a weekly basis.
What does consistency look like in social media? It all depends on your brand and the competition level. A car dealership is likely to post every single day, even multiple times a day, if necessary. On the other hand, a law firm may only need to post 2-4 times a week. Regardless of the number of posts, what’s important is to keep them going consistently to build recognition with the platform’s algorithm and gain followers.
Every social media platform has its own algorithm. Knowing what the algorithm likes and doesn’t like in each social media ecosystem is essential. TikTok is an app based on videos. A best practice for feeding the algorithm here would be posting a video, using sound, adding text to the video, and adding hashtags. Don’t post still photos or long videos to TikTok, save them for Instagram or LinkedIn.
The Fix
Work with a social media team. Even the best-staffed marketing teams are busy. Making time to prioritize posting cadence is a big stretch. But with a dedicated social media team in your corner, you don’t have to worry about it.
Do you need help adhering to best practices in social media marketing? Contact Blue Star Design to learn how we can help you overcome these common mistakes and take your social marketing to the next level.
