Post Image
  Businesses globally have seen the usefulness of social media and how it can be used as the primary marketing channel since a considerable percentage of the world’s population is on a channel or another. Aside from connecting these businesses to their audience, social media helps to broaden a brand’s reach and to boost its reputation online.
Read more about Social Media
However, when not used properly, social media can cost a brand a lot. Oftentimes, brand owners do not realize that their social media strategies could prove harmful to themselves until it is too late. In this post, we look at common mistakes made by social media marketers. If you happen to be doing any of them, it is high time you stopped.
  1. Poor Knowledge of Your Target Audience. Brand owners who have the intention to introduce their brands on social media should not fail to carve out enough time to understand their target audience and the kind of content they are likely to engage. The following steps are essential for understanding who you are planning to target:
  • Build your social media persona by collecting demographic data about your ideal customer. Using insights from platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. find out valuable user information to help you paint a picture of the kind of people you want as your customer.
  • Take time to know the kind of content your customers like to consume. Also, try to determine their favourite social media platforms.
  • Assess your competitors’ social media strategies as they may have done enough research on their audience. Look out for the most popular content type and the top shared content.
  • Validate your audience profile by using online survey tools like SurveyMonkey or Typeform to verify your audience research.
  1. Not Being Human. If you must excel in your social media marketing strategy, you must endeavour to create posts that are relatable and resonate well with your target audience. Humanize your brand and make your audience trust you better by sharing live videos of events, pictures of your employees, workplaces, behind-the-scenes, and other fun projects you are handling. In addition, you should automate your responses and contents in moderation; you do not want your audience to see you as a faceless, robotic, content-distributing brand.
Sign up to the Connect Nigeria daily newsletter
  1. Thinking All Social Media Platforms as Equal. Brand owners and social media marketers need to understand that all social media platforms are unique in their own way. They have different features and their users are distinct in their demographics. Treating these platforms as if they were the same is a mistake that would cost any brand a lot. Therefore, it is not advisable for any social media manager to cross-post content even though it might seem easier and convenient to them. Contents should be tailored to fit each platform. This could be done by changing the headline/caption or the images.
  2. Failing to engage in social listening. Social listening refers to the art of participating in brand-related conversations with your audience in the hope of connecting with them. Brands that fail to respond promptly to customers’ complaints will experience low patronage in the future. The following are the mistakes brands often make which gives the impression that they are not interested in holding a conversation with their audience:
  • Avoiding and deleting negative comments.
  • Refusing to engage with followers.
  • Ignoring mentions and tags.
  1. Not paying attention to analytics. Brand owners and managers ought to evaluate their social and marketing strategies using social media analytics. The information gotten could help with gathering competitive intelligence, increase brand awareness, enhance campaign performance, etc.
Brands are quick to enter social media and jump on trendy activities for their own benefit but only a few of them take out time to find out what works for them and what doesn’t. A mistake in your social media strategy can affect your brand’s reputation. Therefore, it is important to identify these mistakes and know how to avoid them in the future so that you can record massive success in your brand’s growth. Featured Image Source: Informi
Got a suggestion? Contact us: editor@connectnigeria.com
You might also like:
This article was first published on 11th January 2022

ernest-chigaemezu

Ohia, Ernest Chigaemezu is a writer, editor, and grade teacher based in Jos, Nigeria.

Comments (1)

One thought on “Social Media Mistakes You Probably Did Not Know You Are Committing”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *