Smart businesses know that social media is an important part of your marketing strategy in 2019. Although most businesses have at least one form of social media in this day and age, many businesses don’t know the right way to use it. In fact, many business make social media mistakes that cost them potential customers. It might seem difficult to create a successful social media account, but with the right guidance it can actually be quite simple. Check out these tips to help you abandon the social media habits that might be costing you potential customers.

1. Auto Posting

Because it’s so important to maintain your posting schedule and your social media presence, many business turn to auto-posting. They might have a robot post for them, pump out promotional content, or simply send out a generic post when there’s a new blog article. Your social media followers aren’t fooled by these tactics, and they’ll know your social media is impersonal. People follow business accounts to be interested, inspired, educated, or entertained. If your content is generic, purely promotional, and clearly lacking a human voice, you will lose followers and, in turn, potential customers.

2. Ignoring Comments

Some businesses create successful posts that create a lot of engagement and then completely leave the comments alone. If people comment on your posts, you should always respond to these comments. Not only is this engagement a good way to keep the conversation going, but it also shows your followers you care about their thoughts and opinions. Engagement is the most important factor in the success of your business’s social media, so encouraging engagement through actions such as answering comments is essential to your social media success.

3. Infrequent or Too Frequent Posting

Many businesses have not yet discovered the optimal posting rate on social media. You need to post on your channels often enough that your followers remember you. On Twitter, this might be multiple times per day. On Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin, this typically means once per day. On Instagram and Facebook, your business will actually be penalized if you’re not posting frequently enough and your followers will not see your posts. For this reason, it’s essential to remain active on social media. However, you should also avoid posting too frequently and bombarding your followers with constant information, as your followers will become frustrated and unfollow your account.

4. Posting Only Promotional Content

Most business see social media as a promotional tool. While social media can be useful in marketing, it’s important to remember the reasons people go on social media. Typically, people are looking to be entertained, inspired, educated, or interested. For this reason, the content that you post on social media needs to be valuable to your followers. When you post purely promotional content, your followers will quickly get bored and unfollow your account. Instead, create posts that are funny, interesting, engaging, or educational. Share a fun fact, an interesting picture, a funny video, or a good story. Your social media should focus on humanizing your brand. Although social media can be an effective marketing tool, it is not successful when it is purely promotional because people use social media to connect with other people.

5. Turning Off Social Media at 5PM

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when it comes to their social media is forgetting about their accounts when the workday is over. Because most people spend time on social media after work, it’s important to be creating new posts during that time. However, you don’t need to work 24/7 to accomplish this goal. Instead, schedule your social media posts so that they go out at all different times of day. If all of your social media posts occur during the work day, you’re likely to see low engagement. Additionally, you should try to monitor your accounts at night to avoid any controversial comments that might cause problems and to respond to comments to encourage engagement.

ImageWorks, LLC | CT Social Media Marketing

Does your social media marketing strategy consistently fall short of your goals? Knowing is half the battle. If it’s time to rethink your strategy, all is not lost. Do research on what others in your industry are doing in social media: what works, what doesn’t and their tone.  Take the time to get to know what your potential clients or customers want to see from you.

We understand that social media can be overwhelming, and it's not always easy to change with each update or refresh. If you are looking to boost your social media marketing then you may want to take a step back and reevaluate the online presence you already have.