5 Social Media Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid

A tip sheet for dodging costly, time-consuming missteps and what you should be doing instead.

When I first got into marketing, it was long enough ago that a lot of people said the internet would just be a fad. Several years later, when social media started to become a thing, most people said the same about that. Today, it’s clear how ludicrous those theories were, but there is still a tremendous amount of misinformation about social media. 

A lot of people have over- or under-inflated expectations of the results they should anticipate, how much work goes into it and how they should best utilize it. That misinformation hurts them, either directly by doing the wrong things and hurting their brand, or indirectly, by wasting time and money on ineffective strategies and tactics.

I want to help you avoid those costly and time-consuming mistakes so you can build the business you deserve, serve more people and bring more value into the world. So let’s talk about some of the common mistakes people make in social media, how to avoid them and what you should be doing instead so you can maximize your results. 

Inconsistent posting activity

A lot of people start off super-motivated about their social media, but that motivation quickly wanes for most. 

That mindset is understandable. Entrepreneurs are incredibly busy to begin with, so when you couple that with the fact that many have unrealistic expectations in terms of how long it takes to see results, it’s easy to see why they often stop soon after starting. But most understand the importance of social media, so they keep trying, which leads to a cycle of repeated starting and stopping.

The problem created here is multifaceted. First is the issue of momentum. If you’ve ever had to push a broken-down vehicle before, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s significantly easier to keep it moving than it is to get it moving from a dead stop.

Once you get into a routine with your social media efforts, you’ll find that you start to exponentially increase your results without an exponential increase in work. It will become easier to block out the necessary time, come up with content ideas and engage with followers.

The second issue is audience perception. When customers see you show up inconsistently on social media, with weeks or months in between posts, they will question your consistency in general. On the other hand, when they see you consistently posting valuable content day in and day out, they will assume you are equally consistent in other aspects of your business. 

Third are the algorithms that determine what shows up in people’s feeds. When you post consistently, you will “train” the algorithm to show your content to more people more frequently — assuming, of course, that your audience finds it useful. As a result, more people will engage with your content, indicating to the algorithm that it’s valuable and should be shown to even more people. It doesn’t take a genius to see how this can snowball into massive exposure. 

Read more: www.entrepreneur.com/