Top 5 Mistakes That are Keeping You From Reaching Social Media Success
Are you reaching your true potential on social media?
Can you say without hesitation that you’re getting the best social media marketing results you possibly can?
Probably not.
Because on social media you can always improve.
And because there are so many things to keep track of and think about, it’s easy to commit mistakes.
But the first step to avoiding committing mistakes that can harm your overall results is knowing about the mistakes you’re making.
If you aren’t aware of them, you might believe you have a killer strategy and will follow it blindly, while the reality is that it is actually harming your social media results.
In this article, we’ll, therefore, present the Top 5 Mistakes That are Keeping You From Reaching Social Media Success and give you insights into why they are so dangerous to make.
Top 5 Mistakes That are Keeping You From Reaching Social Media Success
1. You’re in it without a strategy
If you’re in it without a strategy, your social media efforts will be even more effortful.
Shortly summarized, a social media strategy defines your target audience and guides you to create appealing content that your audience likes. A strategy also helps you know how you should reach your target audience
A social media strategy is not hard to write, however, it demands some thought and effort, but that effort is worth it now based on the effort it will save you from in the future.
Going into social media without a strategy is like building a house without a blueprint. It is possible, but it will take a lot more effort and time, and the outcome might not become as good as it could have been with a clear strategy.
Learn how to write a social media report.
2. You can’t identify your target audience
This will probably the most important point in this article. And let me tell you why:
Knowing who your target audience is key because it is those that you will be creating content for and trying to reach.
When you know who you’re targeting, you can also know what type of content you should share that will resonate well with them.
If you don’t know who your target audience is, then you’ll have a hard time on social media.
You’ll put a lot of efforts into social media, get followers, get reach, get views etc. but you won’t reach your end goal with social media which ultimately is conversions.
When you don’t get any conversions from social media, you’ll wonder why social media “doesn’t work”, while the reality is that you’re only reaching people who aren’t even your target audience and would ever buy your products.
When you know who your target audience is, you’ll get a lot of clarity in a lot of points and questions that you might’ve been missing answers to.
For example, if you decide to use Facebook ads, or Instagram ads, you’ll realize that the amount of targeting you can do, with all the criteria that are available. However, you’ll also realize that you know nothing about your audience.
But once you do know, you can create ads that are laser targeted towards your audience and which generates a high ROI.
How to find your target audience
So how can you find your target audience? Well, it is quite simple, yet complex.
First off, you need to identify the problem your product or service is solving. For example, if you’re selling Coca-cola, you’re killing thirst while making it delicious to do so.
If you’re selling regular bikes, you’re basically selling time. Instead of sitting in traffic, people instead choose the quicker alternative which is taking the bike.
You also need to narrow down the age of your audience. Saying “Everybody can buy my product” is probably not a good idea for several reasons. First of all, it won’t help you get any clarity in who you are targeting, and secondly, while you might sell a few units outside of your “main” target audience, most brands have a clear age span, probably you as well.
To identify the ages of your audience, think about what problem you’re solving and what your product does. If you’re selling cars, then you’ll be able to cut out everybody who isn’t in the age of having a driver’s license and people whoa re above a certain age who don’t drive anymore. In this scenario, looking at the driver statistics of which people drive the most is a great way to learn more about the ages of your target audience.
Then, you have to think about the product you’re selling. If you’re selling sport’s cars, there’s a big chance that many guys in a relatively narrow age group will buy them, however, there will be some people outside of that audience target, but it is the big mass that you should focus on.
3. You don’t work with influencers
As a brand, you only have so much trust, credibility and reach.
By working with influencers, you get recommendations from a trusted individuals, whose followers are your target audience, and that’s what makes influencer marketing generate such incredible results.
The statistics have spoken, people hardly trust the words of brands anymore, but certainly trust the word of influencers and peers.
In fact, 92% of Consumers Trust Peer Recommendations Over Advertising, and that fact alone should make you want to start with influencer marketing today.
What is influencer marketing?
If you’re new to influencer marketing, here’s a very short summary:
An influencer marketing is a leader within its niche, who have a large following and influence over their followers. An influencer has spent their time building their authority in their niche, which means they have a very targeted following, while at the same time a great genuine relationship with their audience.
And this is something brands can take advantage of.
The days of the billboard is over. putting up a billboard, hoping that people in your target audience will see it is a foolish move. In fact, the vast majority of people who will see it are not your target audience, but still, you’re paying for them to see it. That’s how insane display advertising is.
With influencer marketing, though, it is completely different. Here, you’re only paying for your target audience, because you work with an influencer who have built their following in your niche. In addition, they have trust. When the influencer recommends your brand, people will trust their recommendation and buy your product.
Who trusts a piece of wood/metal, as known as a billboard?
How to find influencers?
Marketers identify finding suitable influencers the biggest challenge of influencer marketing, simply because there are so many things that have to be right. Follower amount, engagement, price, how well the influencer resonates with the brand etc.
But now, it is easier than ever to find influencers.
With the Veloce Network influencer directory, you can filter influencers based on your preferred criteria and get influencer recommendations laser targeted for you.
4. You don’t have a content strategy
A content strategy helps you define what kind of content you will post, who the content resonates well with, what type of content you will be posting.
Based on your target audience, you will be adapting your content strategy, therefore, it’s important that you know your target audience before you make a content strategy.
So how can you actually create a content strategy?
1. The first step is knowing your target audience. By knowing who you are targeting with your audience, you also know what type of content they will like.
2. Balance your promotion posts. What this means is that you don’t want to become annoying and only post promotive content, while at the same time, you want to generate good results.
“Too much promotion will drive your readers away while too little won’t get your site the attention it needs and deserves”
3. People hate ads. That’s why sharing a picture of your product saying “buy this” will hardly ever work.
Instead, you should try to weave in your products into your normal content strategy, making your content interesting, yet promotive in a way that is appealing to your audience. It’s a big challenge, but it can be done.
4. Make your content shareable. When creating content, you want to create content that people will want to share with their family and friends. When people share your content, you’ll get a ton of exposure and probably new followers. In a way, it is free marketing. All you need to do is create killer content.
5. Follow trends with your content. When you follow trends and use appropriate hashtags, you can get some serious traction, simply because you’re taking advantage of the “hype” that comes together with the trend/holiday.
5. You aren’t making your brand visually attractive
The feeling you want your brand to mediate should be instantly recognizable on your social media profiles.
You certainly don’t want to look like a child or someone who has no idea what they’re doing.
On social media, you want to look professional but with a dash of personality.
So how can you create that visual feeling?
- Have professional looking profile pictures (logo often works best), have attractive headers, and overall content.
- Your content should be connected in a seamless way. Because it goes so much into creating content that is connected, I can not bring up everything in this article, but here’s an article on how to create visually appealing content, where you’ll learn how to create killer content and dominate your industry.
