By now, most brands realize that a social media presence is essential to their success in marketing. However, not everyone is entirely sure what that really entails, and that confusion can lead to poor choices and sloppy management. It’s one thing to “have a presence,” but it’s quite another to have a solid social media strategy that helps you promote your brand. Here are 3 mistakes that companies often make with their social media strategies and how you can avoid them.
Thinking “Having a Page” Is Enough.
You know that you need a social media presence, so you set up a Facebook page and maybe a Twitter account for your brand. Then you start putting “Like us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter!” at the bottom of all your content, e-mails you send out, etc. Soon everyone will know that you’ve joined the social media revolution, and the likes and follows will start rolling in! But having a page isn’t the same thing as having a presence. Are you actually doing anything on your accounts? The purpose of social media in marketing is to build up your brand’s visibility and cement yourself in people’s minds. To do that, you need to post regularly—multiple times a day. If your Facebook page has had no new posts for six months, then what good is it doing? If you haven’t tweeted for a year, why would anyone follow you? It’s not “set it and forget it.” A solid social media presence requires commitment.
Not Having a Strategy.
You’ve started posting regularly on Facebook and sending out regular tweets. Now that you’re on the right track, things will start to turn around for your company, promotion-wise, right? Well, that depends. What’s your goal with social media? How is what you’re posting helping you to accomplish it? It’s not enough just to post content and hope that people see it. You need to have a strategy. You need specific goals that you want to achieve on social media and a plan for how you’re going to go about it. What kind of content will appeal to your audience? What are they most likely to share, and how can you encourage them to do that? Over time, your strategy will no doubt grow and evolve as you get a feel for what your audience responds to and what they don’t. But you need one in place from the very beginning, to guide your actions as you go along.
Making Social Media Success Your Endgame.
Your strategy is in place, you’re posting regular content, and you’re gaining quite a following. You’re getting comments and replies, likes and favorites, shares and retweets, followers and fans… Success! Well, not quite. Social media is only a means to an end. Your ultimate goal is to drive sales. So you get a lot of interactions on Facebook and Twitter, but how many of them are actually clicking through to your site? How many leads have you generated with social media marketing, and how many of them have turned into sales? Always look at social media with an eye towards how to take it to the next level.
Social media marketing isn’t an easy task. It requires hard work, planning, and dedication in order to do it right. But when you put the resources into it, the benefits you get out of it are well worth the effort.
