Last Updated on March 26, 2022 by Paula

Social media gives you an amazing opportunity to connect with people interested in your niche and the products or services you offer. However, when you’re new to social media marketing it’s easy to get so caught up in the promotional aspect that you start making costly mistakes without even realizing it.

Here are the top 7 mistakes to avoid whether you are new to social media marketing.

Unclear goals

We all want sales, clients, subscribers, and followers, right? To get those you need to plan every campaign around a specific goal, which you can measure by getting your target market to take a particular action — like signing up for your newsletter. By limiting the number of actions available in each message or campaign, you help to reduce unsubscribes and unfollows.

 Unprofessional profiles

Make your profile as informative and professional as possible. You can still have fun with your profile, but you don’t want it to be something like partygirl118!

So just include basic information that potential customers or clients want to know, along with info that makes you stand out from your competition. And maybe one or two fun tidbits. I always include that I’m a doggie Mom and that I love Harry Potter.  Incorporate your logo when you can and use your brand colors to help you to be recognized at a glance.

Following too few people

As soon as you sign on for most social sites, they ask you what you are interested in and give recommendations as to who you might like to follow. How many times do you ignore those suggestions? Almost always, right? Instead actually take a look at those suggestions and follow some, because the ones they are suggesting are usually the top influencers at the site in relation to your niche.

You can also do a search for niche related hashtags and follow other users who are using those same hashtags. If you’re lucky they will follow you back, and you’ll know that you are gaining followers who are interested in the same topics that you are.

Promoting too soon

Most people that are new to social networking are there because they’ve heard it is a great way to reach millions of people. They no sooner sign up with their profile than they start to crank out promo post after promo post.

Social networks are just that, social. It’s not about you promoting yourself or your services over and over. That can actually look a little spammy. Focus on building relationships and connections that are based on your common personal and/or business interests. It’s all about engagement! And knowing that it takes time to build that engaged following.

Publishing the wrong content

Every social network attracts people who prefer a specific type of content or type of delivery. For example, most Twitter users want very short and to-the-point messages. Instagram is all about the images and Facebook is becoming more about Facebook Lives.

Organize your material into folders for each network so you deliver the right type of content to each social media network, based on its specialties and the preferences of their users.

Ignoring daily search results

Each day conduct a quick search for a couple of your business’s keywords and/or brand products. Look for mentions of your business, product, and/or your name. Also look for questions and positive or negative comments on other sites. Be sure to check your @mentions on Twitter and direct messages on Facebook and Instagram daily as well.

If you see questions, answer them and/or refer the person to a specific URL for more information. When see positive comments and reviews, thank them. If you see negative, refer them to your customer service email for more details on what their issue is. The offer of help will show good will to anyone who might have seen it and sort the real customers from those who might be doing nothing more than trying to damage your reputation online.

If you make a habit of doing this every day it will help you keep your audience engaged.

Retaliating

And a word about those who do try to damage your reputation, no matter how unfair they have been. Don’t retaliate in public. It could cost you more than you can ever imagine. Keep it professional at all times.

We all make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them. It’s also possible to learn from other people’s mistakes. So I hope by reading this post you’ll be able to avoid these social media mistakes and start your marketing off on a strong note.

Now it’s your turn. What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes people make on social media? Let me know in the comments!