The right marketing on social networks will help you win customers for life. However when done incorrectly, it can be very expensive.
Before reading this article, make sure you don’t make any of the classic mistakes that are obvious on social networks: you only have a personal account or always use your personal account when you need to switch to a business account.
Okay, great. Now that this is over, let’s look at some less obvious, but extremely important, mistakes that most brands make in their social network marketing activities. Do you make those mistakes too?
Posting on social media just for the sake of posting
Social media should be a continuous and engaging conversation, so if you don’t have anything to say, don’t say it! If you don’t feel inspired to share something, don’t share it. The point is that forced content generally seems false and untrue. With today’s massive content production, more and more social network users are becoming excellent at detecting dishonest and fake postings.
In addition, sending just to send a message does the opposite, of what you want to accomplish. Many people feel that they must constantly post ads to maintain their relevance. In fact, it denigrates your brand and reduces the level of commitment of your audience when you publish low-quality content.
The main point is, be careful with every content you publish and apply a well thought-out strategy. Plan your content beforehand so you don’t have to rely on daily inspiration to send messages. Create a content calendar and always ask yourself if you were the reader would you really be interested in it.
Being too strict with your agenda.
You can easily accept my point of view and do too much. I did it myself and see how many people are doing it now.
Are you one of those who use an inspiring quote in every third Instagram message to create a beautiful column organized with identical tiles in your Instagram channel? Are you doing it even though these types of messages are not getting good engagement? This is an excellent example of what I mean by social media marketing strategy. I’ve seen how many people adhere so strongly to one idea or another that, although the results clearly show that they don’t attract their audience, they always do so because they want to “stick to their plan”.
There are two reasons why this is a big mistake. First, you stifle your creativity. What if you have one of those inspiring moments about something you want to share, but then you don’t because your next message should be a quote. This means that you don’t pay attention to what really matters which is your audience! Make decisions based on your results and always try new and different ways to engage your audience so that they don’t get bored and annoyed. Bottom line focus on what really matters to your audience, not to you.
Aggressive product promotion and not enough social media marketing.
Going beyond my previous point, it is true that sometimes your audience doesn’t always know what you want – and they may want your product or service completely. However, you will turn them off completely if you constantly promote to them and try to sell them.
The point is to focus first on building relationships with your audience. Now, how do you build the relationships you ask? Just like you would if you were building any kind of relationship – building trust. SurveyMonkey reported last year that 68% of adults in the U.S say that brand trust has a big impact on on whether they buy a product or not.
There are two ways to gain the trust of your audience. First, let them in. Let them see the real and human characteristics of your brand. Be transparent and share with them your authentic self. This will create a connection, and a connection will create trust. Second, let’s start at the beginning, without expecting anything. Before you even think about asking them something, focus on what you can give them, and then give it to them. Eventually ask them a whether or not they find value in what are giving to them and if they are willing to pay for it. If the answer is yes, you are on the right track.
Brand consistency
What is the essence of your brand? Is there a sequence in all your content? If you want to create and maintain a strong brand, you should focus on brand consistency.
Consistency does not mean uniformity. Don’t publish the same content over and over again. However, it’s important to change the format, maintain diversity and experiment with different formats. At the same time, everything must be consistent with your brand’s mission, tone of voice and appearance.
Consistency also means presenting coherent content and keeping promises. This creates trust and credibility in the eyes of the recipients and gives them the confidence that they can count on you.
Takeaway: Be consistent in your social media marketing activities because consistency connects and creates strong and sustainable brands.
