Top 10 Mistakes In Social Media Marketing
We have already published a couple of lessons with tips for proper SMM, but sometimes it’s much more interesting and useful to analyse mistakes.
Read about the most common mistakes made by social media managers and never ever fall into them.
1. SMM is not work
First and foremost, you should realize that SMM is nothing less than real work. Millions of people visit social networks daily to have fun and communicate with each other. Vkontakte has recently hit a new record of 60 000 000 users a day. Some of these people are your potential clients. Treat them with due attention.
SMM is not just for fun and likes. It’s work that can solve many problems, such as:
- Increasing brand loyalty;
- Working with negative feedback;
- Online sales;
- Creating a client base;
- Building your fan base and brand advocates;
- Researching public opinion;
- Increasing brand awareness;
- Real-time counselling, etc.
2. Likes measure the success of your SMM
No, nope, no way. It's like saying that the performance of street cleaners is measured by the amount of litter and dust they sweep away. The truth is, no matter how much they sweep the streets, their performance is assessed by how clean the area is.
Likes are one of the performance indicators of a social media manager, but not the main one. They say nothing to your client except for the number of people who clicked that like button.
Your actual KPIs are the number of people who ordered your customer’s service through social media, the percentage of resolved negative feedback before and after, website traffic, reach, and engagement.
If you do SMM, learn what ROI is. It is the measure of your profitability that shows whether you’ve delivered. It’s easy to calculate. How much does your work cost? And how much profit have you generated?
3. You are not aware of Internet trends
It’s a serious mistake you can get away with if you write neutral or positive news that are not particularly humorous, audacious, or viral.
Social networks are one of the most cyclic structures that can rapidly throw spotlight on any event, joke, or news, and then, before you know it, forget about it. A story that was relevant yesterday is worthless today, because everyone has already seen it once or twice, and it’s boring to hear it again from you. Follow the news!
That is exactly why you risk being attacked by trolls if you post a picture that was a big hit a week ago, but today is already considered old hat, and posting it again is bad manners.
Remember demotivator memes? They used to be the top of humour and a killer fad, but it didn’t last long. Posting them today is like admitting you are out of touch with Internet trends, have no imagination and taste.
4. Noone will notice a tyny typo
Does this subtitle bother you? Have you noticed a typo? If you haven’t, this one is for you. Good grammar is one of the foundations of high quality SMM. You write for tens, hundreds and thousands of people, so do it correctly. There are people who won’t notice anything or won’t pay attention to a mistake. But others will simply leave your group forever fed up with awkward phrases and misspelled words
5. SMM is what my company needs!!!
Think carefully before you act. First of all, it doesn’t matter who you are, no one is waiting for you on social media. This, by the way, is the main difficulty of SMM, as you have to become a friend to strangers. People on social media have enough news, events, and discussions without you. In order to become popular, you need either to offer a extremely interesting product, or to present an ordinary product or service in an extraordinary way with the help of good SMM.
Before you decide to expand to social media, think whether a particular network has your target audience (as various networks attract people of different ages), and the promotion tools you need (surveys, mechanisms of advertising campaigns, etc.). If your organisation is B2B, it will be way harder for you than for B2C brands, as social media are populated by end consumers, but not companies. People there want funny pics, jokes and interesting news from friends, and not your new air conditioner.
6. My neighbour is a smart girl who spend lots of her time on Vkontakte. Let her manage our group when she is not at school
We hope she is not just smart, but knows marketing, copywriting, layout, design, analytics and advertising as well. Then you are very lucky to find an excellent social media manager for little money (it's not a real job, she won’t ask for much).
If it is not the case, you will fritter your money away, as you will get nothing but another mediocre community. It’s physically impossible to achieve professional design, layout, and content, as a single freelancer simply does not have time to do everything alone, even if they have all these skills. They are also very likely to have a couple more projects to manage apart from yours.
On the other hand, if you give this task to a company, you will have to pay more, that’s for sure, but in return you will get a team of professional designers, copywriters, community managers, and promoters who know their stuff. You will also get a developed strategy and clear KPIs, all backed by a written and signed agreement. So, as they say, it’s up to you to decide.
7. I have a bunch of stories to tell. I will post them all right now. If people are truly interested, they will see them
Oh yes, they will see them. At 8.30 in the morning. Ten posts in a row, with ten-minute intervals between them. And then they will forget about you for a month until you come back with another bunch of posts. Never do this. You create nothing but noise. You should have a clear understanding of when and what content to upload: what should be posted during the working week and what is for weekends. You should have a strict posting schedule and a content plan for at least a week ahead. Only then will you get a nice news feed and constant user engagement.
8. I have come to social media to advertise, and I will advertise!
Easy there, advertiser! Go back to mistake 5. No one wants you. That’s it. And no one will watch your ads 24 hours a day either. It’s clear that you have come to social media to promote your product or service, but, most likely, you will be boring with this approach. There is more than enough advertising in people’s lives without you. Users don’t want to tolerate it in social networks as well, so have mercy. You can and you should use social media to sell your stuff. But don’t overdo it. No more than two or three times a week. And it must (!) be an interesting post.
9. Writing about success? Let’s take the first image about success from Google. It’s the safest choice
Nope, wrong again. Posting images from photo stocks is out of line, to put it mildly. Everyone has seen them a thousand times. They have turned into a cliche. They don’t convey any emotion. There are two ways out: you either give up on a topic that can only be illustrated with such images, or learn how to make illustrations interesting. A designer or illustrator can help.
10. I have done everything right. My social media are perfect. Where are my likes, shares and traffic?
Do you treat your product or service the same way? Do you make it and just put it on the shelf? I'm sure you don’t. You advertise your product. The same thing goes for social media. You should constantly and thoughtfully promote your posts and carry out campaigns to engage users. There are lots of ways to do it. You just need to do it right. Your can promote your group with targeted advertising campaigns, or collaborating with similar or popular groups, or working manually (inviting people to join the group and using hashtags). Without promotion no one will see your great content. It will remain useless, and only a hundred of faithful followers will enjoy it.
Afterword
That’s what I want to say in conclusion: treat SMM seriously, and it will love you back. Thanks for your attention and the five minutes you have given me instead of browsing your social media.