The Mistakes That Are Tanking Your Social Media Campaigns

Social media can be a difficult game. On the one hand, a social media platform is one of the best places to leverage your seo efforts, but on the other, so many businesses just like yours are trying to do the same. And things can get oversaturated, and even a bit spammy, and that's the least helpful thing when you're trying to build a following that'll convert.

Of course, you've had some success on social media in the past. You've built yourself a digital profile across multiple platforms, and you've secured a few handles that'll stop copycats from popping up, and your brand feels like it's secure. Maybe you've had a hint of engagement here, one or two likes and a share there, and you're thrilled, because these are genuinely good signs! 

However, they're not quite good enough for your future plans, and you're going to need to work harder and smarter to get your brand name and message out there to the masses. Because you want people to know who you are, and to engage with you on a personal level, but you're not quite doing the right things to achieve this. But everyone makes mistakes when trying to leverage the power of social media, and that's something we want to go through in more detail below. 

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Using Each Platform the Same Way 
Each social media platform acts in a slightly different way, even if two or more of them are owned by the same company and brand towards users in the same way. For example, Instagram is a big place for image based content, and most people would measure their success via the amount of likes received on a post. However, on a platform such as Snapchat, the same cannot be true – instead, you'll have to measure success by the amount of people that have simply viewed your post. 

Similarly, on a website such as LinkedIn, more longform, involved content is shared. And if you were to measure the success of each post on here, you'd count the click-through rate. After all, LinkedIn is more of a networking site, and people go there to share specific examples of their work, including your brand. 

So make sure you're not approaching each of the social media platforms you have a profile on in the same way. You want to craft your content a little differently for each one, and track different metrics to determine how well your posts are being received. 

Not Following a Clear Content Strategy
A content strategy is the best thing to follow when you're trying to score big on social media, and any marketing agency who knows what they're doing will lay one out for you as soon as possible. Because a strategy will give you both a start and end point for your social media campaign, guide you to create the content and the outreach you truly need to, and allow you to measure your success against the milestones laid out in the strategy. 

And your content strategy for social media needs to be as specific as possible; you need to know what you want, how you can get it, and how you're going to go step by step to ensure you reach your end goal – this is often known as setting SMART targets. And depending on what platforms you're using to advertise your brand and products, you're going to have a set of SMART targets for each. Not all of them have the same useful metrics to track, after all. 

Also in your content strategy, you're going to have clear examples of the typical audience member you're trying to reach. This will help you to create content that's personalized towards them, and that above all else, they'll respond to. 

Failing to Engage with the Comments 
Of course, when it comes to actually interacting with the very people you're seeking to impress (and eventually convert into customers), you cannot afford to come off as aloof. You can't ignore a string of comments or reactions on something you post, especially if a few of them are negative, and you can't pick and choose only the most positive to engage with. 

Because social media is a two way street, and if someone engages with you, it's a good idea to return the favor. Otherwise your impressions will tank, and people will come to realise that you're a company that simply doesn't care. So make sure you thank people for their positive reviews, and make sure you address the negative ones in a sensitive yet serious manner. 

As a rule, always remind visitors that your instant messenger app is always open for them to make use of. Indeed, getting yourself a social media manager will make something like this a lot easier to oversee, and you'll have a trained and dedicated member of staff on hand at all times to open up a dialogue between your customers and your business. 

A Lack of Personal Content 
Personalized content is the king of the social media world. People don't just want to see cut and dry, normal, boring adverts on their feeds anymore. They want something a little more nuanced, and typical of today's internet culture. Of course, depending on your target audience, you'll have to take an approach like this with a pinch of salt, but don't forget about it completely. 

Because if you do, and if all you're ever posting are links to your latest blog page, or the product you've recently released, people aren't going to be too interested. They're going to scan over the things you post and ignore them completely, simply because you aren't offering them a visual spectacle. You're not giving them something to be interested in, and that's going to cost you in the long run. 

Forgetting to Use Bona Fide Social Media Tools
Many of the most popular social media platforms come with inbuilt marketing tools, and making sure you make good use of them is a key part of ensuring success on places like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. And seeing as most of these tools come inbuilt into the websites themselves, they're not going to be hard to get to grips with. 

These tools are mostly beneficial because they're naturally integrated into the code, which means they'll work wonderfully with the usual social media algorithm, and there are different levels to the amount of advertising you can get out of them. Most start with a free model that gets you basic coverage, but even a yearly subscription won't take much out of your marketing budget. 

Indeed, the Facebook Ads Manager alone is one of the most powerful tools you can take advantage of here. You can easily create and customise an ad plan through it, as well as use Facebook's features such as Messenger, to integrate a kind of webchat/chatbot into your social media interactions. All in all, it certainly won't be hard for a customer to find you, and it'll take a lot of the hardwork out of trying to navigate the platform as a whole. 

The Takeaway
Any social media campaign you put out there needs to be anticipated and well guided, as well as personalized to fit your audience's niche, and you should never forget to take advantage of the promotion tools many social media platforms grant you. All in all, make advertising easier for yourself by following the rules above, and don't be afraid to get back to the drawing board.