It’s clear that the majority of brands now need a strong presence on digital marketing channels. The central problem is a lot of online businesses may not have the key digital skills in their team, or they have someone managing their social media who lacks experience.
This can lead to mistakes which can be hugely damaging to your business. So, read on to discover some of the things to avoid with some insights on what to do instead.
1. Using too many platforms
There is always a temptation to jump on all the top trending social media platforms. The logic here is sound enough because you don’t want to be left behind. But it’s crucial to be realistic and avoid spreading yourself too thin. What’s important is where your audience is because engaging the wrong people will not help you to grow.
So, instead of signing up for seven of your favourite social media sites, consider starting with one or two that are most relevant to your business. Remember it’s relatively easy to scale up from here and add more platforms if appropriate. The alternative is to end up with too many profiles and abandon them. With this in mind, it’s always worth doing a social media audit to ensure you haven’t abandoned platforms in the past.
2. Failure to customise your message for each site
One rationale brands often use to being on every digital marketing platform imaginable is to post the same content on each one. There is an argument that if you are doing that, then you are only really on one platform. It’s crucial to remember that every site has a different audience and a type of content that performs well.
So, if you are using more than one platform it’s crucial to recognise that point and adapt to it. This means at the very least you should be editing images to the right size and adjusting the written text that you post. Otherwise, it’s going to be obvious you just posted an Instagram post to Facebook.
3. Posting inconsistently
While every site is different, posting consistently across them is something that does relate to them all. And this is another reason why you don’t want to be on too many of them. It’s worth pointing out though that how much you should post does differ from site to site.
Overall, it’s best not to open a profile on a digital marketing site unless you can commit to posting on it consistently. The simple truth of social media is you can get forgotten about extremely quickly, so you need to stay active to remain relevant. In order to ensure you do post regularly it’s crucial to have a plan for each site and schedule your posts in advance.
4. Being overly promotional
A mistake brands often make is they think social media is purely a sales tool. This means they spend too much time talking about themselves and advertising. Users of the platforms do not generally want to be sold to, at least not in a direct in their face style.
Instead, they are there for engagement and entertainment. It’s no secret that the brands that focus on engagement first are usually the most successful on social media. This can be a hard concept for some to accept because increasing sales is their primary motivation. But it’s worth remembering that most businesses’ primary agenda is to make money.
So, the brands that focus on engagement have the same ultimate aim as you. To put it bluntly, you need to trust the process because sometimes it is a slow burn. Success with digital marketing is rarely overnight but consistency over time will generate results. This means you should keep your promotions on the down-low.
5. Failure to track and follow the data
So many brands post on digital marketing channels doing the same thing every day even when engagement is low. Yes, it’s good to turn up and be consistent but you also need to turn your audience on. This means if what you are doing is not leading to engagement, then it’s time to mix things up.
But to put yourself in the best position to do that, it’s crucial to be tracking all the relevant data. Remember to focus on what’s most relevant to your business and social media goals. This means you shouldn’t necessarily be chasing likes, but you do need to get your message to the right people. The more you analyse your results, the better you will get at finding that sweet spot.
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When running an online business, it’s crucial to have a strong presence on social media. But it’s easy to make mistakes that can be damaging to your business. This article has outlined what some of those mistakes are and how you can avoid them. So, remember to limit the number of platforms you are on, customise your message for each platform, post consistently, limit your promotional posts, and track the data.