Quick Tips About How To Avoid Social Media Mistakes

Are you making any of these mistakes with your new business?

1: It’s all about me!

So here you are, you have arrived, your company is new and dynamic and you want to let everyone know about it on all social media channels available – right?

Wrong!

Your product may be the best thing since sliced bread, or your service the best thing since the invention of the wheel, and you really want to hit the ground running, but you have to assess what your actual purpose is for before launching yourself full-throttle at your target audience.

Self promotion is actually the number one mistake most new businesses make when they embark on their plans for marketing on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Sounds crazy right? What is the point of advertising and marketing campaigns if not to promote yourself and your business?

Think of it from your prospective customers point of view. Do you really think they deserve to hear about how wonderful you are every single day of the week? Do you believe that your followers will be interested in every single self-promoting post you write? Probably not.

Your potential customers will always be very self-driven, and will want to know how you can help them solve a problem or fill a particular need of theirs, that is all they are really interested in at the end of the day. By switching your focus from how great you are to how your product or service will help solve their immediate issue, you will be winning customers and building a loyal following sooner than you think.

2: We are a hit – we have 5000 followers on Facebook!

Erm, no….

Don’t fall victim to the numbers game – being successful on social media is not a popularity contest. Just because you have gained 5000 follower does not necessarily mean your business is a success, having a ‘big’ number of ‘Likes’ on FB is not an automatic key to a profitable business. How many of those five thousand are honestly interested in your brand or what products or services you have to offer? You may have engineered and executed a winning marketing campaign only to be disappointed about how many fans are actually being converted into customers.

You will be far better off seeking out targeted leads that will like and follow you out of true interest no matter what that number is. Would you rather have 5000 disinterested followers or 400 genuine and loyal repeat customers or clients? For the sake of your bottom line, the latter is much more preferable.

By consistently delivering real value to your current and prospective customers, and focusing your marketing approach on how you can help to improve their life, you will build up a loyal base of followers, and any disinterested people will quickly fall by the wayside. This is what eventually happens to all successful businesses using social media, but it certainly doesn’t happen overnight.

3: We cannot fail – we are going to hit them with every tool in the box!

Using the wrong social media tools can be just as bad as not using any at all. There are many tools that you can use to successfully build an active following around your business or service, but it does not mean you should be using every single one that is available to you.

It is tempting for any new business to dive into marketing as quickly as possible, and take advantage of every free tool on offer, but it is often a waste of your precious time and effort if you don’t know what options are going to be the most effective to achieve your goals. This is an area that will take some trial and error, and you will need to test the water to see which methods are actually connecting with your target audience, and which are not. Remember to do a regular audit of your social media activity to highlight and eliminate those tools and platforms that are not working for you. If it doesn’t work – stop doing it! Work smarter and not harder.

At the end of the day the aim is to engage and interact with your customers and prospects. It is a two-way street where you have to be prepared to listen and respond to your clients, not just talk at them. Choose the right social media platforms and tools that will enable you to do this easily.