Social media can be a business owner’s best friend or worst enemy. It all depends on how it is managed. Social media mistakes can not only cost you reach and customer engagement, but your customers and reputation as well.
Social media mistakes that small businesses make
-
Doing too much, too soon
Entry barriers to social media are very low. You don’t need to pay anything for signing up or posting. So, many small businesses simply jump onto every possible social media platform without much thought. This misplaced enthusiasm often backfires. Many business owners are unable to dedicate time, resources and efforts required to cultivate a good social media presence. To get the best ROI from your social media presence, you must consistently engage the followers, be personable and accept feedback. With their limited resources, small business owners are seldom able to keep up. Limiting your efforts to 2 or 3 carefully chosen platforms is a good strategy to implement.
-
Choosing quantity over quality
More is not always better when it comes to posting on social media. Often times, small business owners feel the more they post on social media, the better results will be. However, the truth is that quality posts have a more important role in driving engagement and conversions. For example, for Facebook, research suggests that businesses should post no more than once a day. It has also been shown that Facebook pages with less than 10,000 fans witnessed a 50% drop in engagement per post if they posted more than once a day. So, posting way too much can cause more harm than good. Many small business owners make this mistake.
-
Not having a proper game plan/social media strategy
As we said earlier, jumping on the social media bandwagon is not difficult, but getting good returns is certainly not child’s play. If not managed properly, social media marketing can be a sheer waste of time and resources. Posting on too many social media platforms, posting poor quality content, not being original, and posting sporadically or too often are just some of the mistakes that can make your followers lose interest. Without an action plan, there cannot be a clear direction. So, it is essential for small businesses to have a proper social media plan in place defining their objectives, plan of action and a budget. It should also define the right platforms, best practices, various other strategies, and a well-thought-out content calendar.
-
Not engaging or listening
Social media is not about one-way communication. If you keep talking about your business and what it offers, without listening to your followers or engaging with them, all your social media efforts will go in vain. Quite often, small businesses fail to have meaningful conversations with their target audience. Instead, they just keep posting without bothering about replying to comments or reviews. This can prove to be a costly mistake. When someone asks a question, leaves a comment or writes a review (even if it is negative), make sure you respond.
-
Not measuring ROI
Small businesses often make the mistake of not monitoring the progress and measuring success. If you don’t watch the metrics, you won’t know how well the campaign is working. You won’t know which aspects of your social media efforts need to be improved upon. The most common and important metrics that small businesses should pay attention to are impressions, engagement and reach, referrals, conversions, response rate and response time.
Social media marketing can work wonders for small businesses, but only when it is utilized effectively. It is best to have a professional manage your social media campaign so that you can focus on your core business activities, while your social media presence is leveraged to its fullest.