Marketing is one of the best ways to get your brand out there and gain a wider audience. Specifically, social media can be brutal. A simple mistake can lead to losing many followers and audience members. It is important to make sure you are avoiding any mistakes that could damage your brand's social media presence. Some mistakes to avoid:
1. No Social Media Marketing Plan
It may seem obvious to create a marketing plan, but there is a shocking number of companies that forget to do this. Most people will just post on social media without a plan in place which may not be helping boost your company. Coming up with a plan can be easy, just create objectives you want to accomplish and a budget to go along with it. This can also be a content calendar, so you know when you are posting and what the post consists of.
2. Not Identifying Your Target Audience
This is another crucial part of any kind of marketing plan. Being able to identify your brand's audience will help you directly target them via social media. This will help you gain better results because you are targeting people directly interested in your product. Even if you work hard, but do not have a target audience, you will not see the same results.
3. Not Investing
Marketing is an investment. People who are marketing their company should understand they are always trying to continue to grow and gain new clients. Once you begin investing in marketing you should be putting one dollar in and getting two dollars out in return. Therefore, investing in marketing will help meet long-term goals because you are able to grow your brand.
4. Not Partnering With Professionals
Marketing or advertising professionals can help manage your social media. They can create plans and content calendars to keep up with various social media accounts. Professionals are also up to date on new marketing trends. They know what is getting clicks and how to accurately target your audience.
5. Not Tracking Analytics
Keeping track of which forms of marketing work for your business is important. If you are not keeping track, then you potentially risk repeating marketing mistakes. This will help you plan for the future because you know what works and what does not. Tracking analytics will help you create targeted marketing strategies that will improve your brand’s following.
6. Treating All Platforms the Same
All social media platforms are different. Because each one is unique, sometimes the same content cannot be posted to each. Different social media platforms have different requirements for caption lengths. It is important to know the differences to make sure you are engaging your audiences. For example, Instagram is primarily image-based while Twitter is primarily text-based.
7. Not Engaging With Audiences
Communicating with your audience will help build a relationship between your brand and its audience. Your social media following makes up some of your target audience, so it is important to build a relationship with them. This makes your brand feel personable, and they will tell their friends about how you responded to them. This is helpful for long-term branding because people will go back and see the communication later.
8. Using Bots
Some companies use bots to respond to certain replies on social media or in the chatbox on their website. The initial responses between bots are normally okay, however, if the conversation goes longer than a couple of exchanges there could be miscommunications. Sometimes the bots do not filter certain words and can respond to something inappropriate, or even say something inappropriate. Many large brands have gotten in hot water for situations involving bots.
How We Can Help!
At Inner Spark Creative, we are able to help you with any of your marketing needs whether that is social media or not! If you have noticed you have not been avoiding these marketing mistakes, then it might be time to get professional help. By creating content calendars and marketing strategy plans, we are here to help build your brand. Contact us today for a free consultation.