With the COVID-19 pandemic, the ways in which customers browse, shop, dine, and interact and transact have changed. This meant businesses needed to change how they operated. A lot of changes mean there’s a lot to remember. One online strategy that business owners may have neglected to remember is their social media strategy. And more to the point: avoiding mistakes in their social media strategy.
Social media audiences are not just Gen X, Y, or Z
As people have hunkered down, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok, among other platforms, have become lifelines to staying connected. Complementing this was the increase in the number—and types—of users who’ve used social media for the purpose of keeping track of their favorite brands. Did you know, for instance, that members of the “baby boomer” generation (anyone born between 1946 and 1964) are more active on social media than ever before? As pointed out in Marketing Week, since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 25 percent of baby boomers have been tuned in to their platforms of choice—and for longer periods of time.
Social media strategy mistakes you may not be aware of
If you are a business owner—and considering the events of the past year—it may be understandable if you haven’t paid much attention to your social media strategy. Yet with more people spending even more time on one or more social channels, it is critical to know how your brand or business is presented on whatever platform(s) it is featured.
Here are a number of common—but avoidable—social media strategy mistakes that were recently listed by Sydney Clanton in Business2Community.
- Having no social media strategy—at all. It’s tempting to think that simply creating a profile page and presenting the basics of what your brand offers—along with some eye-catching pictures—is all that’s needed to attract attention. It’s not. In fact, many of the points that follow trace back to not putting in the time and effort to having a social media strategy in place.
- Not knowing the target audience. As with not having a strategy, not knowing the right audience to connect with makes posting your brand’s profile to social media pointless. Knowing the demographics of age, income bracket, and location, among other factors, are vital to getting your brand noticed.
- Not being relevant. Never post for the sake of posting. You may fear that your brand will get lost in the social media shuffle if it isn’t front and center. Consider instead that posting irrelevant content will only annoy and possibly alienate your target audience.
- Inconsistency in posting. You should carefully plan posts of relevant information that can be scheduled on a consistent basis, be it weekly or daily. You should also be prepared to replace a planned post if something topical occurs that ties in with your brand’s messaging, and which your audience will relate to.
- Over-promoting. Tying in with relevance, over-promoting your brand will come across as repetitive to your audience and also alienate them. Fewer posts, with content that’s aligned with what fits in with their needs and wants will make more of an impact as opposed to posting every hour, on the hour.
- Failure to apply analytics. How can you see if your social media efforts are successful? By social media analytics, of course. The adage of “learning from mistakes” truly applies here, because social media analytics reveal what’s (and what’s not) working. Then, whoever handles your business’ social media management will figure out what changes and different directions to take.
- Tuning out. So, someone posts a positive notice about your brand or business. You read this, but ignore it. Guess what? You may lose that very positive customer. And what if the situation were the opposite, and a disgruntled customer posts negative content that’s not addressed promptly? Keeping in touch with what your audience is posting—both good and bad—is crucial to keeping your relationship with them strong.
- Failing to have a call-to-action. If you post content to promote a particular product or service of your business, you must never neglect to include an easily visible call-to-action (CTA) to give your customers the chance to learn more information. (This can also aid in later providing data for social media analytics.)
- Content that’s not properly curated. Social media may have an informal vibe—but the content you post about your business must always be sharp, professional, and free from errors. Remember, since you are promoting your business, everything—including social posts—should in fact be “all business.”
- Not keeping different platforms separate. What may be effective on Facebook may not work as well on another site, so you must avoid the temptation to copy and paste content from one platform to another. This is tricky, because while your brand messaging should be consistent, it should also fit in with a particular platform’s style.
As you can see, there is a lot to keeping a business’ social media strategy “mistake-free.” Don’t be intimidated by the potential errors listed above—and don’t avoid promoting your business on social media. Let EGC lend a hand. Our social media marketing services have benefited clients in fields as diverse as retail, education, and healthcare and wellness, among others.
