When Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter first became a part of our marketing plans a few years ago, it was relatively easy for an organization to stand out. Back then, just being part of a social network was enough to help your website get found by prospective clients. Now having a social media marketing strategy is pretty much a given, bringing with it the problems of over saturation.
Don’t get lost in the sea of social media. Rethinking your approach to social media marketing can have a huge impact on the number of visitors you attract to your site if you avoid these 5 most common mistakes.
1. No Plan, Goals or Analytics
The biggest mistake you can make is to jump in without a plan, goals and a way to measure your progress.
- All blog posts and other activities need to be well thought-out, organized and timed to achieve your social media goals.
- Knowing which of your buyer personas use which social media sites and for what purposes ensures you publish only relevant content where they'll find it.
- Monitoring what these potential buyers are saying and what they’re interested in lets you know what content to create and what discussions to join or lead.
This is where using the right tools is crucial to your success. The right tools, like HubSpot's all-in-one marketing software, should let you set goals, create and share content across the social media outlets most used by your buyers, capture and nurture leads among all the different outlets/channels, track online behavior and sales and even calculate your inbound marketing ROI.
Regardless of whether you use such tools or not, companies that have and follow a social media marketing plan are more successful in reaching their goals than those companies who just “wing it.”
2. Broadcasting vs. Engaging
Approaching social media as if it were your personal broadcast channel is a huge mistake. That might work in North Korea where there’s only one television channel, but when people have endless choices you need to make your “broadcasts” stand out.
- Put “social” back into social media and start conversations about topics that resonate with your prospects and customers.
- Contribute something of substance that attracts your ideal buyer and interact with them. This doesn’t mean you have to start every interaction. Join in on an existing dialog!
- Be sure your profile contains a link to an effective landing page on your website.
- Don't forget to make it easy for someone to follow you back.
- The more useful and actionable your content is, the more likely you’ll attract lots of followers who retweet and share it.
3. Sprinting
Like anything worthwhile, seeing results will take time. Don't think you’ll be swamped with new leads because you published 20 blog posts and sent out 100 tweets this week. Social media marketing is a marathon. It takes quality, relevance, consistency and endurance over an extended period of time (6-9 months) before you see steady results.
- Pick 2-3 topics and people in your industry who blog with high Klout scores to follow.
- Start a conversation with them, build on their ideas and offer new ideas.
- Cultivate your relationship with those folks and when you've built up your credibility with them, offer to do a guest blog.
- Invite them to do a guest blog on your site.
- Start some intriguing conversations of your own and share them widely. Do this consistently—every day, every week. Whatever the schedule, pick it and stick with it.
- When referencing your own content, make sure the page you send them to has a call-to-action that matches where they’re likely to be in the decision-making process and is relevant to the topic.
Consistently sharing your great content will eventually yield more highly qualified prospects. And when you follow back the trail of followers to site visitors to prospects to leads to sales, you’ll be able to figure your return on investment. All-in-one marketing software such as HubSpot, provides real-time reporting with the critical information you need to hone your social media marketing strategies.
4. Counting Comments
The usefulness of your message can’t be accurately measured by the number of comments your content accumulates. In fact, HubSpot’s Science of Social Media Report shows that comments aren't all that valuable—shares, tweets and retweets are what matter. (Just because someone comments does not mean the person will share it.) Focus on creating great content, make it easy to share and don’t forget to share it widely across your own networks. You know you have something “hot” when the number of re-posts, re-tweets and shares starts to climb. Those numbers mean prospects and customers are spreading your message, making your information that much more credible. All of which, by the way, contributes to increasing your website’s rankings in search engines. Perfect for getting found!
5. Ignoring Questions
One of social media’s most often overlooked opportunities is the question. You’ve invested resources (time, money, labor) to get people to connect, don’t ignore them and don’t view them as nuisances when they finally ask you something. Questions are a direct invitation to initiate one-on-one communication.
- Be prepared to answer all kinds of questions that come your way.
- Create a list of the people in your company who will answer the questions you can’t.
- Set up a process to make it easy for your colleagues to do that.
To make the most of the opportunity, answers need to be polite, thoughtful, accurate and timely.
Remember...
Re-working your approach to social media can dramatically impact your bottom line in a positive manner. So: set goals, create your plan, stick to it, get out there and become remarkable!
Happy socializing!
Do you see people making mistakes with their social media marketing? What are they and how do you recommend fixing them?
Related Posts:
- 13 Steps For Avoiding Social Media Marketing Plan Duds
- 3 Shortcuts to Generate Leads With Social Media
