Marketing is all about getting to your audience where they are, not where you want them to be. If your audience is on social media (and they probably are), you need to be reaching them there.
Social Media Marketing is the art of using social media to its fullest extent, with the aim of benefitting your business. How you use your social media depends on what you want to get out of it. If you want to get people on your website to make purchases, you post in one way. Whereas, if you want to build a reputation with the sort of people you target, you need to post another way.
Social Media Marketing is easy to get wrong. It isn’t just a case of getting the right people to follow you, and tweeting once a week. Mastering your goals on social media needs you to avoid all the pitfalls, and turn those potential difficulties into a plan.
1. Not having a plan
Speaking of plans, not having one is a major social media marketing mistake. As we’ve already said, you need to know what you want to get out of your Social Media. Everyone can tell if you are posting without a plan – you won’t have any messaging, your content will be all over the place and your brand won’t be defined.
Use a plan to set out:
- What you want to get from Social Media
- What action you want followers to take
- How you are going to achieve this
- What you want to post about and when.
2. Getting the platform wrong
Not all brands should be on all platforms. This might sound like heresy, but some brands simply aren’t right for certain platforms and vice versa. If you have a serious, sober brand, perhaps Tiktok isn’t for you. If you only need to get out messaging on your products, with occasional updates to your audience, a text based platform is more useful than a video or photo platform. However, if you are selling products that live and die by their visuals, then a platform that showcases that is essential.
3. Not interacting enough
Social Media is about one thing – being social. It wouldn’t exist otherwise. However, a great many businesses use their social media as purely an advertising tool. Advertising is extremely useful, and provides a great way to get your products into people’s minds. Social Media advertising is an effective way of doing this – it’s just not all you should be using your socials for. Use your platforms to interact with your followers. Not just in a customer service / help desk manner, but in a way that gives you a personality.
4. Getting the audience wrong
Social Media is bigger than you realise it is. That isn’t an assumption – almost everyone has the wrong perception of social media channels. When social media started, it was a place for teenagers and people in their twenties. While those places exist – looking at you Tiktok – the social media landscape is much more diverse than you might think. People of all age groups and identities use social media, and often platforms you might not have realised.
Equally, you need to know your audience. Tools built into most social media platforms can help you figure out who you’re talking to. Don’t assume because of the platform you’re using that your audience is one way, and only talk to them in that way. Find out who’s listening, and what they want to hear.
5. The wrong tone of voice
Once you know who you’re talking to, you need to figure out the right way to talk to them. How many brands have you seen on social media that communicate in a way that seems inappropriate – even cringeworthy?
How do you do, fellow kids?
You need to figure out how people are likely to respond to particular tones of voice. Sometimes it is obvious. In insurance or banking, people want to know that they are in safe hands. As a result, the tone of voice needs to be sober and sensible. However, some brands find a tone of voice that works for them you might not have considered. Who knew that museum accounts would find themselves posting memes all day?
6. Not keeping up
Social Media is full of trends. You don’t have to take part in all of them, but it’s a good idea to be aware of them. That isn’t to say that people will stop following you if you don’t follow the latest posting trend. Rather, it means keeping an eye on things. If all your industry competitors are posting similar things, it is worth looking at why they are doing it. They must have all come to a similar conclusion – one that you might be missing out on.
The same is true of your followers. While you shouldn’t slavishly follow the opinions of your followers, it is a good idea to read a room. Social Media has an unfair reputation for being a room full of eggshells for brands to walk over. However, consider whether it is always the right time for your post.
7. Measuring poorly – or not at all
Sometimes we forget that social media marketing is, well… marketing. It’s fun to try and connect with our audience. It can be almost addictive to try and figure out whether you can make your content trend or go viral. However, we should never lose site of our objectives. Keep your plan in the back of your mind at all times. How well are you achieving your goals? How well are particular types of posts doing in that regard?
The metrics you use to measure your successes and failures are up to you. Only your business can decide them. However, you need to make sure that you measure how well your posts achieve, or contribute to, your goals.
8. Giving Up
Finally, social media is hard. Getting all of this right can take time and effort. Many businesses struggle to find that time and effort. So, they give up. Remember, however, that an abandoned social media channel is worse than no channel at all. If a customer tries to contact you on a page that they have not realised is no longer monitored, you could be in for a slew of negative publicity. Keep up your pages, or delete them entirely if you aren’t going to use them.
If you just can’t figure social media out, or struggle to post enough for it to make a difference, don’t worry. Gumpo are experts in Social Media Marketing. Whatever kind of business you are – and believe us, we’ve seen more than a few – we can help you out. Whether it’s just help with getting started, or a full time content plan and posting, Gumpo are the team for you.
