Stop making these seven social media mistakes and get back on track for success.

You’re finally in a rhythm – you’ve set up your social accounts, you’re posting and it’s regular. Unfortunately, it’s likely that your business is making these common mistakes in their social, which may be hindering your success.

Are you guilty of any of these?

1. All your posts are sales-focused.

Connecting with an audience on social isn’t a sales lead, it should be more of a friendly conversation! If over half of your posts are sales-focused, it’s likely you are pushing your products or services too hard. Strip your content back and include more light-hearted, conversation prompting or fun pieces to have your audience engage with you again.

1. You don’t reply to anything, ever.

The way you interact with your audience online speaks volumes about your business, so if you aren’t replying at all, you may as well be waving a red flag. If you can’t take the time to reply to a comment or question, will you have time to help with order enquiries?

We dive into more detail on comment etiquette in a separate blog here.

1. You aren’t clear in your objectives.

When you are formulating your social content, how often do you consider what your objective is? What do you wish to achieve from this post? It’s common for brands to neglect carefully considering the purpose of their post and whether their content is suitable for this objective. Ideally, your posts should hit a range of different objectives, from brand awareness, to engagement, to shares and sales conversions.

For each post you make, ask yourself what your ideal outcome is – and measure your success in terms of your objective.

1. Oversharing is your jam.

Business pages differ to personal pages greatly. If you’re sharing posts as if your business is your personal page, you may be missing the mark with the quality of your content. Although your business may be an extension of your identity, it should be treated as a separate entity, with content that speaks to the brands industry and customers. It’s best to avoid sharing political views or personal updates that don’t directly relate to your brand.

1. You are on the wrong platform.

Not every social platform is for everyone. It’s possible that your audience is spending more of their time on a platform you aren’t even utilising yet. If you think this is potentially the case, we recommend running a focus group or surveying your customers on the platforms they enjoy spending more time on. Once you know the answer, shuffle on over to wherever that is!

1. The tone you are using is off.

A key player in your social content is your copywriting and tone of voice. Are you speaking the language of your target audience, or are you potentially unrelatable? Analyse how your target audience talks, engages with one another and what information they share and don’t share. Follow suit.

A great tool to identifying your brands persona is the Myer Brigg’s 16 personality quiz. Take the quiz with who you want your brand to be in mind, and see which personality type you fall under. Knowing your brands personality will then help you to use the correct tone of voice and language in your content.

1. Your content is boring.

Sometimes, things are as simple as they seem. Your content may just not be connecting with your audience. To get a better understanding of what your customers prefer to engage with, we recommend running a test month, where you test various new content ideas and see which perform the best. Once you have a better idea of what your audience wants to be seeing, change your strategy to suit!

Do you need a team of experts to examine your social and provide guidance on where you could improve your content? Get in touch today.