With social media marketing becoming central to reaching new audiences, it is important to ensure you are working in the most appropriate channels, with the right strategy, while avoiding common mistakes.
Since the beginning of 2022, there are approximately 3.96 billion total social media users using up to seven different social networks per month, and spending at least 95 minutes per day on social media–but likely more!
In light of this, as a business owner or brand, it's important to make sure your presence is not only reachable, but also engaging to your target audience.
Social media marketing is a challenging endeavor. Unfortunately, many businesses are misguided in their efforts to build a strong social media presence.
A Misguided Approach to Social Media Marketing
Some businesses make digital marketing mistakes in the beginning when they approach their social media marketing strategies in a misguided way.
This can cost them in many ways, including lost customers, lower revenue, and damaged brand reputation.
To avoid these costs, businesses need to identify areas where social media can make a positive impact.
When businesses know the impact social media can have, they can plan and budget their social media marketing campaigns to create the biggest impact.
What is the Value?
Many misguided businesses are using social media simply as a promotional tool rather than a way to connect with their customers.
They believe that social media is focused on getting more followers, and they have no interest in dialogue or connection.
They spend their time on sales copy snippets, rather than writing to engage their audience.
Ultimately, this type of approach only leads to disappointment.
Instead, make sure you are giving your audience value for the time they spend on your social media feed.
If you slack off and aren’t creating quality content, people will notice and stop paying attention.
To create trust and have your posts resonate with consumers, it’s important to build a good relationship with your target audience.
Then, you can create content that engages them, builds their loyalty to your brand.
The Cost of Bad Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of the most effective ways to connect with your customers and drive traffic to your website.
However, if done incorrectly, social media marketing can quickly become a waste of your time and money.
You have to take into account the cost of bad marketing and fix these 8 common social media marketing red flags:
1. You’re Spending More Money Than You’re Making
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when it comes to social media marketing is underestimating the cost.
If you’re spending a lot of money on boosting posts with little ROI, it's time to reconsider your content strategy and target audience.
2. You’re Not Measuring Results
Another common mistake made when it comes to social media marketing is not measuring the results.
Without tracking data, it’s difficult to determine whether or not your efforts are paying off.
If you don’t have any data to show for your investment, it may be time to rethink your analytics strategy.
3. You’re Not Focusing On User Engagement
One of the most important factors when it comes to social media marketing is user engagement.
If you're not focused on engaging with your customers, you're likely not going to get the results you want.
Find out what's keeping your customers from engaging with you and make changes to ensure that they feel welcome and are engaged in learning more about your brand and products.
4. You’re Not Listening To Your Audience
Social media marketing is all about developing relationships with people around you, so it really pays to listen to your audience.
Yet, many brands don't listen to their customers or clients–instead of creating a dialogue, they often use social media as a place for some form of mass marketing approach coming down the pipe.
This can actually lose you potential customers altogether if they don't engage in the dialogue and become aware of your brand or product.
5. You’re Not Keeping Up with Social Media Trends
Taking a look at the stats on how Facebook is growing. Twitter has over 300 million users and LinkedIn is a powerhouse of business professionals all wanting to connect with others in a B2B way. TikTok and Instagram are alive with content creators and influencers.
You have to be aware of social media trends and developments going on in your industry.
6. You're Not Paying Attention To User Demographics
Many companies spend large amounts of money to market themselves on social media platforms, but instead of just blindly running more ads, you should know who is using the platform and when they're active.
You also need to target them with the right message.
Understanding the demographics of each audience on different channels throughout different times of day will help you optimize your messaging and increase engagement.
7. Your Brand Image Is Hurting You
If your brand image is hurting you, it will continue to do so until you take measures to change it.
You need a better brand identity and interactions on social media in order to be successful. Poor branding and social media interactions are often indicators of a business that needs a more focused vision and more defined goals for success.
It can be beneficial to seek advice from experts in the field of marketing.
For example, if your brand is not reaching your target market and you're not sure why, asking a person who specializes in marketing could help you figure out what might be hindering the connection.
8. You're Just Going Through the Motions
Social media marketing should be the primary way that you interact with your customers–nothing else should come before social media.
If you are in a position where you just want to sit back and wait for people to come to you, then you will not be able to get very far with social media marketing, sales, or business in general.
What Makes a Good Social Media Marketing Strategy?
One of the most important factors when it comes to social media marketing is finding a good strategy. A good strategy should be aligned with your business goals and objectives. It should also be designed to attract and retain customers. Here are some tips for better social media marketing:
Set a Goal
Think about what you want to achieve with your social media marketing. Do you want to build brand awareness? Increase website traffic? Increase sales?
Once you have determined your goals, develop a plan that will help you reach them.
Build a Content Strategy
Plan your content wisely. Make sure that each post is relevant to your target audience and that it includes enough information for readers to understand what you’re promoting. Use images, videos, and quotes to create compelling content.
Track Everything
Track your progress closely. Keep track of how many people have visited your website as a result of your social media posts, how much traffic you’ve generated, and how many leads you’ve generated from your social media campaigns.
This information will help you determine whether or not your social media marketing strategy is working properly. If it isn’t, make changes and try again until you find a plan that works best for your business.
Keep it Fresh
Use videos and images to get more social media attention. Don’t just post the same old, static text on your business’s Facebook or LinkedIn pages that you would use on your website.
Your posts should include images, videos, and quotes from other people who have used your products or services, as well as links to additional content on your website like articles or blogs.
Amplify Your Voice
Get creative with hashtags. Brands can see a 50% increase in engagement when using hashtags.
Hashtags are keywords or phrases preceded by the hash symbol (#), written within a post or comment.
Hashtags make a post or comment searchable and are indexed by various social media platforms so that they can be found and discovered by your target audience.
It's a great way to grow a follower base.
Be Generous
Don’t forget to "Like, Share, and Retweet" other people’s social media posts. It sounds simple, but many business owners don’t do it, even though it helps their own social media reach.
When someone shares your content, take the time to acknowledge it by Liking the shared post. This shows your appreciation and lets others know that you are active and attentive.
Likewise, find ways to reciprocate by sharing valuable, related content from those who show you loyalty.
Be Direct
Invite followers to join your business’s social media pages by inboxing them an invitation with a link to the page.
Give followers a way to follow you through a “real-time” conversation by using social media chat software. Most people don’t use this feature–and it’s worth it!
The Power of Branding
One of the most important things you can do when doing social media marketing is to focus on branding. This means creating a unique and memorable name for your company or product.
When you brand your company, you create a powerful connection with customers. This connection helps them to feel like they are part of your brand and that you care about them. It also makes it easier for them to share information about your company or product with their friends.
It’s important to think about how you want your brand to look and feel before you start marketing.
Have a vision for your brand. Then use this vision to guide the way you design your social media channels, whether it’s your company logo, color scheme, or photography.
Don’t be afraid to use a conversational, relaxed voice, as long as it makes sense for your brand. You may find that these differences even gain you more attention and followers.
Work with a creative branding agency to help you develop your social media strategy. They’ll be able to draw on their experience and expertise to guide you through the process of developing a social media presence that best represents your brand.
The Importance of the Funnel on Social Media Marketing
One of the most important aspects of social media marketing is creating a funnel. This is a process that helps you identify and track the progress of your visitors as they move through your website or blog.
The first stage of the funnel process is where you capture the attention of your visitors.
You can do this by creating attractive content, promoting your site or blog through social media, or building an email list using an incentive or launching an event.
Once your visitors are interested in what you have to offer, they will likely want to learn more about it. This is where you introduce them to your products or services.
You can do this through compelling content, landing pages, or email campaigns.
If you’re doing social media marketing correctly, you should be able to see a pattern in how your visitors are progressing through your funnel.
This will help you improve your strategy and continue driving traffic to your website or blog.
The Wrap Up: Fixing Your Social Media Marketing
1. If you’re not getting the results you hoped for with your social media marketing, there are likely some things you’re doing wrong.
2. First and foremost, make sure you’re targeting the right audience with your social media posts. You need to be aware of your target market and what they’re interested in.
3. Next, make sure you’re creating engaging content that will attract your target market. Don’t post irrelevant or thin content–people will quickly tune out.
4. Finally, be sure to measure the success of your social media marketing campaigns and make changes accordingly. If you don’t have any results after a certain amount of time, consider changing strategies or hiring a professional to help you out.
Successful Social Media Marketing for a Small Business
If you’re not doing social media marketing right, you’re doing it wrong. And if you’re doing it wrong, your business is going to suffer.
There is a key thing to remember when planning and executing social media marketing for your small business:
Don’t do it all yourself.
It’s impossible for one person to perform all the duties of a social media manager.
You need professionals to handle everything from handling email, to web design and hosting, to social media marketing and video production, and more.
To Give Your Social Media the Boost It Needs, Call Binary Glyph Media!
If you're looking to create a successful social media marketing campaign, or if you're just wanting to get a little more out of your current campaigns, give us a call. We'll work with you to develop an effective plan that will help you achieve your desired results.