There are many benefits of utilizing social media when it comes to your business marketing strategy. However, have you ever stopped to consider the ways your social media use could be hurting your business? In this post we will look at five common social media mistakes you may be actively making that could hurt your business in the long run.
Hashtag are a valuable tool in any social media marketing strategy. According to Yahoo! Small Business, hashtags can help your company connect with your target audience, grow your influence, reach out to non-followers, and drastically increase engagement.
However, it is important to be careful when incorporating hashtags into your social media strategy, as using irrelevant hashtags, or using too many hashtags can be considered hashtag spam— a major turn off to your audience.
When incorporating hashtags, experts suggest using the below guidelines, depending on your social media outlet:
- When using Twitter and Instagram ALWAYS incorporate hashtags
- Use 1-2 hashtags per post on Twitter and Facebook
- Use 5-10 hashtags per post on Instagram
- Do not use hashtags on LinkedIn
- When in doubt, turn to sites such as tagdef.com or hashtag.org to discover relevant hashtags for your content
Over Using Automation
When managing multiple social media channels, automation is a wonderful tool that can simplify the content management process, however it is important to remember the “social” aspect of social media as well.
If you are incorporating automation into your social media strategy, don’t forget to stay actively engaged with your audience. By interacting with your followers you will form relationships with your audience and build a loyal customer base.
When it comes to social media, it can be difficult to figure out how often to post updates about your company. According to SalesForce, using social media marketing to your advantage “is a balance between promoting brand awareness and not overwhelming your potential customers.”
In order to find this perfect balance, their team suggests sticking to the below guidelines when it comes to the frequency that you post on various social media channels:
- Post no more than twice a day to Facebook
- Aim to engage on Twitter with three tweets per day
- Share once a day on Instagram
- Try to post once each weekday or 20 times per month on LinkedIn
Using Facebook Ads Incorrectly
With over 1.18 billion users actively engaged, paid Facebook ads can be a valuable advertising tool for your company. However, if done incorrectly, your Facebook advertising can hurt your business in the long run. According to Forbes, it is important to avoid the following mistakes when it comes to creating a Facebook advertising campaign
- Jumping in without clear goals
- Targeting an audience that is too broad
- Not optimizing your images for use on Facebook
- Incorporating too much text into your advertisement
If you decide to utilize Facebook advertising in your social media marketing strategy be sure you are not shooting yourself in the foot by making this common errors.
Social media can be a valuable tool for your business. By avoiding these active mistakes and figuring out which social media platforms are the best for your business, you can ensure your social media accounts are working for you and not against you.
Other Sources: Greg Beazley, Strong Social CA, Simply Measured, Business 2 Community, HubSpot