Social media strategy: 9 mistakes to avoid!

8 min read

Studying a social media strategy is essential for any business, be it a small SME or a large brand. In fact, you cannot have an effective social media presence if you do not know which way to proceed and what goals to achieve.

As in all things – and this is especially true for online business that aim to make digital marketing that works – the strategy is the first and fundamental step by which to move. Therefore, when it has to do with company profiles on social networks and the corporate blog, have a clear social media strategy is essential. Otherwise, you cannot do social media marketing that impacts positively on ROI.

Warning: the ones above are not words thrown there by chance. Before acting, it is always necessary to think strategically. This is true also for the business on the web. Otherwise, you run the risk of relying on chance and committing several errors. And this could result in loss of earnings online and in a blow to web reputation of the company.

Social media strategy
Image Source: Google Image

Long story short here nine of the most common mistakes that web marketers make in planning social media strategy company. Remember to avoid them like the plague!

Focusing on the amount of followers and fans rather than on the right target

It has a certain effect have hundreds or thousands of Facebook fans or Twitter followers, but that does not affect much on the affairs of the company if those fans and followers are not interested in the products and services that the company offers. That’s why aim to have as many followers as possible is a wrong target for a social media strategy.

And if you even decide to buy fans and followers … Well, this would be just an operation without any strategic or commercial sense.

Among other things, it seems that 60% of people who have a profile on Facebook share posts that relate to the products of the companies. This should even push more companies of the marketer to track down users who may share their products, rather than scatter shot, picking and follow like without any strategy.

Not regularly post content that create engagement

Every status update on Facebook or every tweet on Twitter should be a valuable content, namely content that attracts the attention of the target. Indeed, to the center of the social media strategy should be put in the first place one thing: the quality!

In witness whereof, the infographic shows this fact: there are 176 million web users who make online purchases. It is a good reason to give up the poor content – the so-called crap – and focus instead on what consumers can feel valuable and useful.

Do not convert fans and followers into customers

This is a call to the concreteness. Because, after all, your social media strategy aims mainly to one thing: increase the ROI linked to your online presence! In short, to have hundreds or thousands of fans and followers who share your post or your tweet is fantastic. But you do not get out of it a real advantage as long as these people do not turn into customers.

The infographic mentions this fact: only 12% of people who see a sponsored product on social media it buys. So, once again, your duty as a marketer is to create content that can be as valuable and attractive.

To this we must add the mastery of writing for the sale and design call to action effective.

Disperse time and resources on too many social media

Especially if you have not hired a community manager and social media manager that translate into actions the social media strategy, do not waste your energy, resources, money. What does it mean? The infographic advises us to focus only on Facebook, since it’s a social network used by more than one billion people worldwide.

I am even more rigid: I suggest you do a thorough investigation, checking on platforms such as time passes your target when sailing. Discover on what social media is talking more willingly. And then find facts there! That does not mean automatically be necessarily find on Facebook. They could be target consumers who are most active on Twitter or Google Plus. Or you may prefer to just read a handful of very authoritative blog. Your social media strategy and, more generally, your digital strategy must take this into account.

You may also like to read another article on web-build: 10 Tips For B2B Social Media Marketing In 2017

Do not discharge their personality in content

If the content published on social media are too generic and boring, no one will buy the products or services of the company offering them. A good solution to this mess – and of course the post quality content – is to reveal in posts and tweets in the voice, the personality, the company’s image.

In short, the company should have a brand so strong and influential that apply social media strategy would also mean “to spread the corporate voice” in the published content. This work of “transfer” is the responsibility of the community manager and expert in corporate blogging.

Making spam rather than creating value

The last thing that web users want to do is put up your spam. If people start to think that your company is one of those – and unfortunately there are many – who publish only promotional self contained and self-referential, with the sole intention of forcing the purchase readers, it happens a simple thing: stop to follow your social media. That’s why it’s so important that your social media strategy including the creation of original content, relevant and useful.

The infographic cites a staggering: about 14 and a half billion messages shared on social media every day are spam. At this point, for web users it is a matter of real self-defense!

Doing all the work manually

It is not to be exact a point that regards the social media strategy, but it concerns more than anything else the tactics with which it operates. However, all post status updates or tweets manually can take a long time.

However, there are many programs and websites that allow you to select the date and time of publishing content that you allocate to social networks. This also applies to the company blog post, if the publication is managed by an advanced CMS.

The infographic it said however that only 18% of the company’s business pages is managed according to an automated publishing mode.

Sharing the same as a message on each channel

Even if you are trying to promote the same product on social media, you need to remember that every single platform needs a language and a specific communication. In the planning phase of the social media strategy, this must be very clear. So, for example, create content and share it in the same way – that is, without any changes – on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus is a mistake.

The graphics also reminds us that we might have users who follow us across multiple channels. Therefore, not to bore them endlessly repeating the same message, you can think of to communicate the concept in a different each time.

Do not have a social media strategy

This error should have been included in the list first, because it is the most serious of all. In fact, try to make social media marketing without a strategy is just a bad idea. Instead, what is needed is just a general and, specifically digital strategy, a strategy for social media.

The infographic shows us that as many as 53% of companies – but the sample is representative only of the US – use social media to increase their number of clients. 90% of these companies or brands has a strategy for using social media. I have no fresh data as they relate to our country, but I do not think we are better off in terms of planning social media strategy.

Here, these are the nine errors that the infographic suggests avoiding companies that want to think about a social media strategy resulting in effective outcomes. This is indeed wrong that you pay first, because they are able to offset the benefits that a business can get from their web presence.

And you, what do you think of this list? Do you agree? The interesting with some other point? More generally, what are in your experience the most serious errors that SMEs and brand can make in thinking about their own social media strategy?

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