Don’t knock the effect a good social presence can have on your business. With social media you’re able to establish a strong network, build brand presence and ultimately gain new customers.
Yet on the flip-side, social media can be a big confusing beast that can eat up so much of your time and if you’re not careful you could waste a lot of it! Consistent mistakes are easy to make and will cost you dearly, so we’ve listed 6 mistakes you can avoid right now and make sure you’re on top of your social media game.
1. You haven’t set yourself up a social media strategy.
Plans are important, they’re vital when it comes to your business and your finances. Having that clear direction helps you achieve your goals, so why should your social media efforts be any different?
Make sure you’re hitting realistic targets and working towards an overarching goal with your social media, otherwise it’ll all be for nothing – and it’s important we’re accountable for all our time, as time is money!
Start with the objectives and goals of your social media efforts. “We want 5000 followers on Twitter by December 2017” “We want 20,00 site visits from social channels each quarter” – With each of your goals try and use the “SMART” acronym meaning Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. The two I suggested could fill these criteria perfectly.
2. You haven’t found out who your target audience is.
This is a marketing basic and it should follow over into your social media strategy. Create ‘Social Personas’ for the profiles of your potential customers. They might take a little bit of research and work, but very much worth it.
Think really hard who will buy your product and who’ll interact with you. Once you’ve found this out try looking at what their needs and motivations are, what kind of social circles they’ll interact with, hobbies, interests and turn-offs. Don’t be afraid to go really in-depth from world and political views to favourite colour!
Knowing who your ‘Social Personas’ are will help you create the right content that’ll resonate with the right type of people who will buy your product. Creating personas are incredibly powerful because they’ll unlock insights and give you a clear sense of direction.
3. You haven’t organised a content plan.
Consistency is key. A channel that embraces the consistency that is needed to excel in marketing will find they’ll grow a loyal audience that will be expecting engaging and relevant content on a weekly or daily basis. You can achieve this level of consistency by having a content plan, this will help you stick to a posting schedule, keep a uniform theme and share relevant content.
Build your content plan off the back of your ‘Social Personas’ so you’re able to select the right content that will speak to them.
When it comes to creating a content schedule make sure you’re overloading with industry relevant content that’s not your own! Why? If you’re a social presence that just shouts about themselves, you’ll become boring and your audience will be disinterested.
Sharing industry relevant content from all over the web will establish yourself as a thought leader and a good source of information. This kind of reputation is invaluable to setting yourself apart from your competition. Help galvanise and grow your industry by becoming a hub of information attracting everyone interested in what you have to say.
4. Not having enough conversations.
Social is just that, Social, make sure you’re having great conversations with people as you never know where it could lead, as I’ve said before don’t make your social media channel a one-sided shout-a-thon because that’s one shortcut that’ll damage your social presence.
Refer back to your ‘Social-Personas’ and seek out these people. Once you find them make a special emphasis on engaging and talking to them, as more likely than not they’ll talk back. Conversations on any social network will be seen by people not only in your audience but theirs also, increasing your influence.
Finally, having consistent, good human conversations with people through social media will make your brand seem more human, there are far too many cold lifeless brands, make sure you’re not that.
5. You haven’t got a consistent visual brand that looks good.
Social media is a very visual platform. If you’re hitting the bullseye with the above points we can start getting into how pretty your brand looks. Your social feed doesn’t need to look like the archive room of Saatchi & Saatchi, but being a professional service requires graphics that harmonise with the service you offer.
Nearly every users feed is full to the brim with people and brands vying for their attention, they’re seeing a hundred little billboards a minute, so the best looking content is going to stop them for a moment, and that’s all it takes.
Some things to keep in mind:
Brand consistency across all platforms: This is a trap so many brands fall into, make sure your logo and headers are the same across all your social platforms. And not blurry!
Use relevant photos, images and gifs: If you’re advertising a blog or a service, make sure you’re using a relevant, inviting and clear stock photo / graphic or gif. Message and Image should be in sync.
6. You’re not Collaborating!
Remember this: You’re in the same boat as hundreds of others. Collaboration is a great way for two or more brands to grow together in ways they’d not be able to individually. Collaborating and sharing what you’ve created will help you both diversify and grow your audiences.
Start by finding the Influencers in your market (or similar markets) making sure your influencers have a healthy audience and are strong participators in social marketing, as you don’t want it to be you doing all the work. You may have an idea of who these influencers are, or you may need to do a bit of research, just make sure you keep a file of all your potential influencers.
The next step is reaching out. If it’s a brand, find their head of marketing, if it’s an individual, drop them an email. It’s easy to make the initial contact, usually they’ll be very welcoming to your ideas and will want to set something up, if not then it’s their loss and move onto the next influencer on your list.
Collaboration ideas? Why not create a blog together, take a half and half approach on an issue that’s affecting your industry? Interview their CEO or head of department and ask them 10 questions? Meet up in person or via webcam and talk over an issue to create a video, or even a podcast!
Final word.
Social is a big beast and there are so many different things you can do. My best piece of advice is to have a plan in place and implement it as effectively as you can. Knowing the direction in which you should be going is a great asset to social media.
Don’t forget about consistency. As with everything in life, consistency will help establish your brand as a worthwhile source of information and engagement, just make sure you’re on those platforms every day, talking to people, sharing industry information and making the world a better place.
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