How To Fix The Top 3 Critical Mistakes That Companies Make On Social Media

Whether one likes it or not, social media is here to stay. In the past 2 years alone, Wild Creek has helped several brands grow in the social media space through various activities and built businesses that are social media strong.

What was, 10-years ago, a nice-to-have option, has become a “mandate” today. However, there are a lot of misconceptions and mistakes that many companies still continue to make.

As the number of social media users continue to rise, we take a look at the 3 most common mistakes that companies are currently making.

Mistake #1: Everyone is on social media, so we should be too

In the past 2 years, I’ve heard many reasons for someone to be on social media. But one of the most common reasons I’ve heard from companies is: “Our friends and competitors are using it, so we should also be there (one or all the channels).”

A few months ago, we received a lead from a local business who wanted to be part of the social media channels. And the reason that they gave was “my competitors are on Facebook and we also want to be on Facebook”.

Each business is unique and unless it offers a unique value proposition, the customers may not be interested. Every business’ customer is not exactly the same as their competitors’, and one has to delve deeper than just being part of it just because someone else is. You need to consider what makes you unique, who are your audiences and what value do you want to offer them? There is nothing wrong in having a presence on social media, however, what makes or breaks the impact is the entire reasoning behind the act.

What we recommend:

One size does not fit all. What works for one brand may not necessarily work for another. Sit down and think about your social media goals. What is your goal? What do you want to achieve in the next 6 months or 12 months and create a social media strategy that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely!

Mistake #2: Create a business page and people will start following you

Most business owners start with an assumption that if they create a social media page, people will start following them immediately.

Merely creating a page is not enough for people to find you. It needs a solid social media strategy and social media plan to build followers and to retain them. This requires time and effort along with creating content that your potential customers will like and look forward to seeing. It is also about content that will provide value to your potential customers.

What we recommend:

Creating a page is the easy part. Determine how you want your brand to be positioned in the social media channel, how are you going to attract the right audience and how are you going to engage with them? Social media is all about building, nurturing and, most importantly, engaging the audience.

Mistake #3: Post often, post more and post as many times as possible

Many social media managers believe the more you post the better your page will be visible and will reach more people.  

What we recommend:

Most people unfollow a page when they see too many posts from a page. It is also impossible to create good quality content to keep with the quantity of posts.

What matters in social media is how consistent you are? Which means, even if you are posting only once a day, it needs to be a well thought and quality content.

According to a research by Hubspot, pages that post more than once a day experienced a 50% drop in followers.

The ideal number of posts for the top 4 social media channels are

·        Facebook – 3 times per week

·        Twitter – 3 to 30 tweets a day

·        Pinterest – Minimum 3 Pins a day to maximum 30 Pins a day

·        Instagram – Once a day, but no more than 3 in one day

·        LinkedIn – At least twice a week

Conclusion

One has to remember that social media marketing is a long-term strategy. Focus on consistency and adding value to your page followers. This will help strengthen and build results for your business on social media.

If you think you are facing one of the above problems or stuck with strategy that is not providing you the results you seek, reach out to us and we can help you devise a customized approach. 

This article was first published on my company blog here