Small businesses should use social media advertising for several reasons. When you advertise on social media, you can reach massive audiences without spending money on expensive forms of advertising such as TV or billboard advertising if you’re a new business. Social media advertising also lets you target certain demographics easily through inexpensive paid ads. However, you can do this in ineffective ways. Here are some social media advertising mistakes to avoid.
Advertising on Every Social Media Platform
Of all the social media advertising mistakes you can make, you don’t want to advertise on every social media platform. Not all social media platforms are suited for your target customer base and it’s better to focus on a select few where you’re likely to reach your audience. If you operate a coffee house and you want more customers, you should focus on Facebook or Instagram.
Focusing Too Much On Quantity of Content
It’s important to post as much content as possible on social media to advertise your business, but you should never focus so much on quantity at the expense of the quality of your content. Post valuable content that readers will enjoy and learn from. Position yourself as an expert on the topic and this may mean not posting daily. Ideally, you should post three to four times a week.
Not Engaging With Your Audience
Social media is not just about posting content on platforms. You should also engage with your audience by responding to comments and answering their questions. Hold contests and give out prizes to your followers throughout the year. Comment on other businesses’ social media pages. This could lead to collaborations with them in the future.
Not Studying Your Competitors
Don’t focus solely on your social media pages. Study your competitors’ accounts that also target your customer base. Look at how they’re successful in reaching their customers and use this as inspiration to improve your advertising tactics.
Turning Your Back on Video
Video marketing is essential in social media advertising and one of the worst social media advertising mistakes is to ignore this. Create a Youtube channel where you do in-depth videos on your topic of expertise and at the end of your videos, include a call-to-action where potential customers can reach you. Go beyond tutorials and explainer videos. Include customer testimonials and a backstory of your business.
Ignoring Your Analytics
Another thing you shouldn’t do is ignore your analytics when advertising on social media. Start by figuring out what your goals are for the campaign. Are you trying to get more leads? Do you want to increase traffic to your website? Once you know your goals, use them to examine the right metrics. Some key metrics you should measure are impressions, engagement, click-through rates, and conversions. Find out which platforms receive the most engagements and focus on those.
Forgetting To Spruce Up Your Bio
When potential customers see your bio, they should see relevant information about you and your company. If you leave this section empty or thin, your potential customers may not stay on your profile. Spruce up your bio page so others will know what you offer. Tell your audience more about your brand and what makes it unique from your competitors. Include keywords that relate to your business.
Failing To Have A Clear Strategy
Before you begin your social media advertising campaign, you need to have a clear strategy that details your goals for the campaign. Research your customer base by creating a buyer persona. A buyer persona is an outline of who your target customer is and what his needs and pain points are. Write down your campaign’s main goals and create a strategy based on them. Your goals should also be time-specific and realistic.
Not Listening To Negative Reviews
All business owners love positive reviews, but sometimes your customers won’t be pleased with your services. Respond quickly and respectfully to negative reviews your customers leave on your social media accounts. Offer to communicate with the individuals through direct messaging to learn more about the problem and resolve it for them. See the negative reviews as opportunities to improve your business.
Not Boosting Your Best-Performing Posts
If you see that certain posts perform well, you should boost them to reach more potential customers. You’ll need to allocate more money to your advertising budget, but it will be worth it when you get more people with your posts.
Not Using A Content Calendar
Among several social media advertising mistakes you shouldn’t make is not having a consistent content calendar. A content calendar helps you stay organized and makes your campaign more effective. Content calendar services you can use are Buffer, CoSchedule, and Hootsuite. Schedule your posts weeks or even months in advance.
Lack of Personalization in Your Posts
You don’t want to create posts that are too salesy and promotional for your readers. Add personalization to your social media posts. Incorporate user-generated content into your strategy by including posts from them and thanking them for their contributions. Post content that solves your followers’ problems and offer freebies and discounts to them. Do a few live-streaming episodes for your audience and invite them to give their opinions on your topic.
Boring and Sleepy Content
Readers will turn away from boring and sleepy content on social media. Put more spice and jazz into your posts to excite potential customers. Infuse some respectful but relevant humor in your posts. Reduce passive language and use more action words. Use more power words and emotional words in the headlines and within the copy. Use better images that speak to your brand’s personality. Ask thought-provoking questions and invite readers to comment.
Focusing on The Wrong Metrics
Another mistake marketers make is focusing on the wrong metrics. Likes, follower counts, shares that don’t include clicks to your website, virality of certain posts, and dwell time are not all the best measures of success. On the other hand, website traffic, conversions, and click-through rates matter more and give you a better idea of how well you’re doing.
Not Researching The Latest Trends
Research the latest trends in your industry as they relate to social media marketing and apply some of them to your strategy. Suppose you own a hair salon and you noticed a drop in engagement on your social media accounts. Through research, you discover that short-term video content on TikTok and Instagram Reels works well for hairstylists. You post a few of these each week and you engage with your audience by responding to comments and commenting on other stylists’ videos. You also created a Youtube channel where you offer tutorials and hairstyling tips to busy moms and other women who need simple hairstyles that are easy to do. At the end of the videos, you include calls to action. Now more people engage with your social media accounts and you have new clients.
Avoiding Paid Ads
Organic social search is beneficial in promoting your business, but paid ads are also effective. Paid ads target certain demographics by age, purchasing history, gender, interests, and online behavior. And you can do this without waiting a long time, unlike organic search. Paid ads also allow you to reach wider audiences and this is good for brand awareness. Paid ads are often better for measuring your campaign’s results than with traditional analytics from organic search.
When creating paid ads, write copy that is concise and clear about who your company is and who it serves. Add relevant images and use video ads. Always include calls to action in your ads along with links to pages you want your readers to buy from. Regularly analyze and track your ads’ results to see what works and where you need to improve.
Social Media Targeting Mistakes
Incorrect targeting is one of the most detrimental social media advertising mistakes to make. One mistake is to target audiences in ways that are too broad. When you target too broadly, you may reach people who don’t match your target customer persona. Another mistake is ignoring your mobile viewers. According to Statista, 53% of web users do so with mobile devices. Incorporate mobile-specific targeting strategies in your strategy. Don’t ignore device targeting in your campaign. If you’re an online course creator, your best bet is to target customers who use the Internet mainly on their laptops.
Some marketers don’t engage in exclusion targeting and this is a mistake. Exclusion targeting is when you exclude certain demographics to narrow down the ideal customer you’re trying to reach. You may also exclude customers who purchased from you or website viewers who unsubscribed from your mailing list.
Posting The Same Content Across Platforms
All social media platforms are not the same, and you shouldn’t post the same content on every platform. You wouldn’t post a collage of visuals about your store’s latest pop-up on LinkedIn, but you probably would post them on Instagram or Facebook. If you’re focused on video tutorials about hurricane preparedness to promote your dried food company, Youtube is the best option.
These are common social media advertising mistakes to avoid. If necessary, hire an experienced social media manager to handle your social media accounts. It saves you time and you can focus more on serving your customers.
