Having a strong social media presence is the cornerstone of any good marketing strategy. Around 90% of business that do agree that investing in social media has had a direct impact on their business revenue.

So whether you are just getting started or you are well versed in social media protocol, it pays to take a look at some of the most common mistakes businesses make online to avoid committing them yourself. Here are the potential pitfalls to social media success.

Not Having a Social Media Strategy

Social media for businesses can serve as a remarkable tool for driving web traffic, lead generation, conversions and valuable customer engagement. If you’re not seeing results from your social media efforts it could be that your outreach is stunted by not having a social media strategy.

Going through the emotions and posting on social media platforms just ‘so you are on social’ is not enough. Social media posts should be part of a wider marketing strategy that supports your shifting business goals.

Think about what you want to achieve from social media, who your target audience is, what platforms they are on and what content they are likely to engage with. Whether it’s to raise awareness or drive engagement and sales, your social media channels should be a key step in your marketing funnel.

When leveraged correctly, social media can foster revenue and provide valuable customer insights. Without a social media strategy your posts won’t be as effective as they could be – they won’t be able to combine into something greater, pushing towards the same objective.

Our Social Media Team has nurtured years of experience in online market segmentation, omnichannel content creation and online community management. If you need help refining your social strategy get in touch today. We are perfectly suited to help your business avoid mistakes and achieve its goals. 

Being Overly Promotional 

Posting content that focuses only on generating sales is a sure-fire way to lose your audience. Social media is all about creating a balance of engaging, informative and promotional content.

Sprout Social surveyed 1000+ social media users from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to understand what would be most likely to turn them off a brand. Consistently respondents indicated that ‘posting too many promotions’ was the biggest deterrent.

While social media can be used successfully as a sales platform and sales messages are encouraged, they should account for no more than one in every four to five posts. A good way to moderate the amount of ‘salesy’ content your business puts out is to follow the 80/20 rule.

Continue to experiment with content to see what works best for you, but aim for 80% non-promotional content with 20% posts with calls to action. 

Not Using the Right Assets 

The social media landscape can be noisy and competitive, having the right assets can help you break through the online content clutter. Visual content is 40x more likely to be shared than any other types of content, this is because our eyes are more readily drawn to high-quality images.

Too often brands use images that are too pixelated, videos that are too long or pictures that are cut off. Images and videos encourage engagement and shares on all channels, but only if they comply with best practice.

For images it’s important that you follow the recommended aspect ratios, videos should be kept short and include subtitles where possible as 85% of Facebook videos are watched with sound off.

When edited to guidelines, high-quality videos and images will allow you to quickly and efficiently communicate your marketing messages without relying too heavily on text. At Red Media, we know that where social media is concerned, the way your content looks is hugely important.

We can help generate content to serve your brand and it’s marketing goals. Our talented Social Media team collaborates with you and our design team to create stand out content that demands attention.

Need Some Help?

To take full advantage of the unique benefits offered by a robust social media presence you must have a marketing strategy, follow best practices and avoid faux pas.

Social media is not a broadcasting tool nor should it be an extension of your website. It is important to understand both your audience and the communication platform used in order to reap its rewards.

Perfecting your social media channels takes time and effort, if you need help growing or refining your social media presence get in touch today. Red Media offers a wide range of social media services tailored to your unique business requirements.