Social media marketing mistakes can be a big problem for brands. Cringeworthy missteps can turn off consumers, while an aimless social media strategy can lead to a bloated budget and an unimpressive return on investment.
By taking a smart approach to social media strategy, you can steer your brand clear of common mistakes that brands make on social media. Here are five of the biggest mistakes brands often make in their approach to social media strategy:
1. Poor Planning
A brand without a plan is setting itself up for countless missteps on social media. Before jumping feet-first into social media marketing or making a major change to your brand’s current efforts, take the time to create a coherent social media strategy document. Decide on a budget, create a timeline, set goals, establish benchmarks, and research best practices for the kinds of campaigns that will help you achieve the goals you set.
2. Lack of Direction
One common mistake made in social media strategy is a lack of focus in terms of where you’re headed. Are you looking to build brand awareness? Turn fans into loyal customers and brand advocates? Generate direct sales through promotions? Make sure you and your team know the answer. A focused approach will always work better than scattershot efforts.
3. No Measurable Goals
Social media metrics are often imperfect measures for marketers, and brands sometimes get too tied to how many likes or shares they’re generating. But many brands fall for the opposite mistake, failing to set measurable goals for their campaigns. Without concrete goals and metrics to measure them with, you’ll never know when to pull the plug on an ineffective campaign, or when to invest further in successful efforts.
4. Missed Efficiency Opportunities
Some brands refuse to recycle content across platforms, creating fully unique content for each and every account they operate. Your business might earn full marks for creativity, but social media marketing budgets balloon under these circumstances. Instead, stretch your social media spend by creating content that can be adapted to multiple platforms.
5. Zero Flexibility
Social media is a fluid and constantly shifting space, one that’s driven by the latest trends, events, and happenings. So, it doesn’t make sense to build a rigid social media marketing strategy that leaves you no room to be adaptive and reactive. While too much flexibility can create problems, make sure you have at least a little wiggle room to keep yourself and your business responsive.
