8 Costly Social Media Marketing Mistakes You Must Avoid

Mistake #1: Not Clearly Defining Your Reasons For Doing Social Media Marketing
Amidst the hype and buzz that the social media landscape generates for itself, it is easy to get whipped into a frenzy and jump in with both feet. Unfortunately, many companies never pause to reflect on their reason for being there in the first place. Without a very clear set of objectives, your actions will appear scattered, your content diffused, and you will leave many wondering what all the activity is about.

Mistake #2: No Way To Measure Success
If you can clearly articulate why you are doing social media marketing (and there are many good reasons), the next major mistake most companies make is not putting in place any mechanism to track and measure your progress.    

Mistake #3: Thinking Its All About You
The temptation that arises once you begin to add friends and followers to your social media empire is to begin to think that you are the center of the social media world and that the entire world is sitting in front of their computer waiting for you to pontificate and change the course of their lives with a single sentence.  They are not.  In fact, what people are looking for primarily on ‘social’ media properties is connection. They want to connect with other people who will listen to them and interact. This means that you should spend at least 75% of your time on social media sites listening and commenting on other people’s content in a genuine way. This is how relationship is built. Nobody wants to hang out with the guy who talks about himself or how great his life is 24/7.

Mistake #4: Equating Numbers of Followers/Friends To Success
In a twist on the age old ‘mines bigger than yours’ logic of keeping up with the Joneses, there are some people on the social media sites that feel that getting the most followers, friends, or subscribers is the measuring stick for success. In fact, it tells you very little.  In fact, I know people with many thousands of followers who have not been able to monetize these relationships…because they were poorly selected and not targeted in any way.  There is a huge message to market mismatch.  Instead, set your sites on attracting quality friends and followers versus quantity. Do some homework and profile your very best existing customers. Next go to your social media site’s search function and find other people just like them. This will set off a chain of events that will begin to attract the exact type of person you are looking for. Then, when you subtly work your marketing message into your natural conversations you will see a much greater uptake, or response. 

Mistake #5: Going For The Sale Too Quickly
The one thing that is consistent across all social media sites is the common thread of ‘connection’. People want to connect with other people, and this takes trust. Even for the most basic online interaction there is a certain level of trust that must be established. One of the quickest way to self-identify yourself as a ‘user’ and a person not to be trusted is to attempt to push your sales pitch on your fans, followers, or friends immediately. This is a classic mistake that can sabotage your online efforts before they even begin. 

Mistake #6: Lack of Transparency
?As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, people want to connect with other people on social media sites. There are huge red flags that go up in the minds of others if they begin to perceive any lack of integrity, hiding the truth, manipulating the facts, or otherwise acting in a way that says “I’m a poser and a user…and I want your money”.

Mistake #7:  Pulling A Disappearing Act
In order to establish a relationship with someone, even on a social media site, the other person will require a few things.  The number one element they will require is to see that you are consistently participating. Now this doesn’t mean every hour, but at least a few times a week you should be posting helpful and valuable content. There simply is no way around the fact that consistently producing quality information that helps people is the very best way to establish trust online. 

Mistake #8: Expecting Too Much From Social Media Marketing
Social media sites are so good at feeding their own hype machine that many companies begin to believe it. In fact, many companies observe how certain videos, posts, and pages go viral and believe that they too can re-create these phenomenon and generate huge increases in sales via social media. In reality, you should view social media marketing as one channel for attracting your ideal client, or improving the perception of your brand. Social media marketing should be viewed as one potential channel for attracting clients and improving your brand online.

Summary
In closing I have a confession I must make. I’ve committed every single one of these mistakes myself. In fact, many of my friends in the industry who have huge followings have also committed these mistakes at one time or another. It is part of the learning curve. My hope is that your learning curve can be shortened by avoiding these mistakes starting today.

Have you recognized other major social media marketing mistakes? If so, I’d love to hear about them in the comment section below.  Go ahead…let me know what you’ve seen out there…it might make it into the next article.  :)

Finally, if you liked this post and think it will help others, please use the buttons below to bookmark or post a link to your favorite social media sites.  Thanks!  Ken