We all know social media is here to stay and if your small business is not on any social media platform, you are missing out on potential customers big time. While it may be confusing to navigate the do’s and don’ts of using social media for your small business, it is still important to know even just the basics. In this post, we will discuss five of the most common mistakes that small-business owners make when using social media.
Picking the wrong platform
While you don’t have to be on every single social media platform, you also need to pick the right one for your small business. The way to know this is by knowing what the social media platforms are best at and where your target audience “hangs out”. There’s no point being on a platform when your audience is not there anyway. We suggest you pick one social media platform and ace it.
Not having a content calendar
Effective social media strategy is all about planning. Before you dive into it, create a content calendar for at least three months. By doing this, you won’t have to grapple for content each time you go online. On your calendar, include things like upcoming events, future sales, and holidays like Mother’s Days and Christmas. Also make sure you have a plan set for when you’re going away so your social media is still updated regularly. Have some personal posts too to show your brand’s personality.
Not posting often enough
Posting once a week on your social media channel just will not cut it. Your message will only get buried under your customer’s news feed. There’s no point. You need to post at least twice a week with content that your audience can share and find useful. Video is king right now so it’s worth creating a couple that you can use. Also, post when your audience is there. You can check when they log on in your analytics. No point posting when there’s no one around to see it.
Only talking about you
Yes, it is your social media platform, but the message isn’t all about you and your company all the time. It is important to share other information, too. Things like news articles and research that’s relevant to your industry. Or what your customers are saying about your products and services. Share user-generated content like photos and comments that your customers posted. If there’s a testimonial that’s absolutely riveting, create a graphic around it and share it as a post. Tag your customers, too.
Not engaging with customers
Be it a good comment or bad comment, you need to engage with your customers on your platform. Be professional at all times even if it’s a bad review. But you can’t possibly be online all the time to reply, right? True, and you shouldn’t be anyway. There are several ways around this, of course. You can moderate comments, or schedule an hour twice a day to reply. Maybe even consider using a bot as a first point of contact on Messenger. With today’s technology, you have plenty of options.
If you’re not sure whether or not you’re doing it correctly, consider getting a social media audit. There are digital marketing agencies out there that can sit down with you and help you create a strategy for your social media channels. It’s also worth considering joining a social media workshop. You’ll find that for a couple of hours of your time you’ll learn a lot about managing your platforms.
Brenda Gaddi, Digital Marketing Specialist, 3C Digital
