Social media isn’t going any­where any­time soon. If any­thing, we can expect new devel­op­ments, improve­ments, and advance­ments in cur­rent and new social media plat­forms. It has become the pre­ferred method of real-time com­mu­ni­ca­tion, mar­ket­ing, and busi­ness exchange today. Any­one look­ing for a cost-effec­tive and impact­ful way to mar­ket them­selves and their brand is using social media. That doesn’t mean that every­one is using social media cor­rect­ly or see­ing the results that they want. In fact, that num­ber is much small­er than you’d think. That’s because so many peo­ple using the plat­form are mak­ing egre­gious social media mar­ket­ing mis­takes. Don’t let that be you!

Social Media Marketing News You Should Know for 2020

Like all inter­net plat­forms, advance­ments in social media are the norm. New inter­net mar­ket­ing trends can have a major impact on your social media strat­e­gy and best prac­tices. It’s a good idea to stay up to date with new and upcom­ing social media mar­ket­ing news. For 2020, there are a few key points you should be aware of going forward: 

  • 3.5 bil­lion users - Cur­rent­ly, 3.5 bil­lion peo­ple use social media on an active, dai­ly basis. This means that 45% of the pop­u­la­tion uses social media, mak­ing it one of the most pop­u­lar online activ­i­ties world­wide. One of the rea­sons social media has grown in pop­u­lar­i­ty is the inte­gra­tion of mobile appli­ca­tions, mak­ing it faster and eas­i­er to access for users. 
  • Face­book is king — Since it’s incep­tion 16 years ago, Face­book con­tin­ues to be the favorite social media plat­form for users around the world at over 2 bil­lion users. Around 68% of adult users are using Face­book. If you’re look­ing to reach a larg­er organ­ic audi­ence, Face­book should be part of your social media strategy. 
  • Time well spent - On aver­age, social media users spend over 3 hours a day on var­i­ous plat­forms. It’s safe to say that the glob­al pop­u­la­tion has become social media addicts. This every­day inte­gra­tion into our dai­ly lives means more oppor­tu­ni­ties for you as a busi­ness own­er to reach your tar­get audience. 

Woman Using Social Media

Common Social Media Mistakes by Companies

Social media mis­takes by com­pa­nies and indi­vid­u­als alike can make the dif­fer­ence between increased rev­enue and lost sales. You want to make sure you are not com­mit­ting these social media mis­takes since they can ulti­mate­ly affect your bot­tom line. Here are the social media mis­takes to avoid and how to fix them: 

  • Brand iden­ti­ty — Many com­pa­nies lack brand iden­ti­ty. Mere­ly post­ing your prod­ucts on Face­book or Insta­gram won’t work. You want your cus­tomers to be com­plete­ly clear on what your com­pa­ny is sell­ing and you want them to be excit­ed about it. In order to do this effec­tive­ly, your mes­sag­ing should be tai­lored to your tar­get audi­ence by mak­ing a per­son­al con­nec­tion through social media. This may include post­ing news relat­ed to the prod­ucts you sell or dis­cussing a cause cen­tered around your ser­vices. Con­sis­ten­cy across all plat­forms plays a key role in ensur­ing that there is no con­fu­sion in your mes­sag­ing. What­ev­er social media plat­forms you plan to use, cre­at­ing a sig­na­ture style that sets you apart will keep your cus­tomers com­ing back for more. 
  • Feed­back — No com­pa­ny likes neg­a­tive feed­back but it shouldn’t be ignored. Make the most of neg­a­tive feed­back to make adjust­ments to your brand rather than tak­ing it as a per­son­al attack. Use neg­a­tive feed­back to your advan­tage by resolv­ing cus­tomer com­plaints on the spot. This shows that your com­pa­ny not only cares about your con­sumers but is time­ly to respond and resolve any issues. 
  • Tar­get audi­ence — Too many com­pa­nies use social media with­out research­ing their tar­get audi­ence. Do your home­work! Before you make anoth­er post, com­mit to know­ing your tar­get audi­ence inside and out through ana­lyz­ing research, ana­lyt­ics, and con­sumer trends. It’s not up to your cus­tomers to find you. You must find your cus­tomers and con­nect with them. You can do this by cre­at­ing cus­tomer per­sona sheets using Google ana­lyt­ics, social media insights, and email. Use this infor­ma­tion to cre­ate your posts and mes­sag­ing so that you have the full atten­tion of your tar­get audience. 
  • Con­tent — Com­pa­nies that don’t diver­si­fy their con­tent become bland and unin­ter­est­ing. You want your tar­get audi­ence to ral­ly around your mes­sag­ing from dif­fer­ent plat­forms. Include a blog that shares use­ful infor­ma­tion about the mar­ket you are in or presents dif­fer­ent ways to use your prod­uct. Host give­aways on social media or use video con­tent to show­case how to use your prod­ucts. Use Insta­gram Sto­ries to your advan­tage by post­ing pic­tures or videos of the behind the scenes work­ings of your orga­ni­za­tion. Part­ner up with anoth­er orga­ni­za­tion that com­pli­ments your prod­uct. The added expo­sure will gen­er­ate new inter­est and solid­i­fy social proof in your brand. 

Content

  • Opti­miza­tion — If you’re not post­ing on Insta­gram or Face­book sto­ries, you’re miss­ing out! If you are post­ing, the con­tent should be sig­nif­i­cant­ly dif­fer­ent from the con­tent post­ed on the main page. For those who are using Linkedin to adver­tise their busi­ness, posts should be much more pro­fes­sion­al and longer. For every plat­form, you should be opti­miz­ing your con­tent by adjust­ing the post length, style, and images. 
  • Engage­ment — The pur­pose of social media is to be social! That means respond­ing to posts, mes­sages, and ques­tions on all social media plat­forms prompt­ly or at least with­in 24 hours. Think of social media as your pri­ma­ry rela­tion­ship tool and have a con­ver­sa­tion with your cus­tomers. Let them get to know the brand and make a per­son­al con­nec­tion. It becomes more chal­leng­ing to man­age as your fol­low­ers increase but using social media tools like alerts will help you stay on top of post responses. 
  • Sched­ul­ing — One of the biggest social media mis­takes is not using plat­forms strate­gi­cal­ly. Posts can be strate­gic and inten­tion­al by using a social media sched­ul­ing tool. It is chal­leng­ing to come up with con­tent on a dai­ly basis so plan­ning and pri­or­i­tiz­ing your posts ensures engage­ment stays con­sis­tent. You will still have a chance to switch things up when all posts are planned but using social media plan­ning soft­ware like Hoot­suite and Buffer can help main­tain con­sis­tent mes­sag­ing across all platforms. 

Contact Us for a Free Audit

Cre­at­ing brand excite­ment and loy­al­ty on social media has a lot to do with cre­at­ing great, eye-catch­ing head­lines that bring your tar­get audi­ence in and keep them engaged. Once you get your cus­tomers where you want them, you want to main­tain their atten­tion. You can only accom­plish this by under­stand­ing what your tar­get audi­ence wants and how to reach them. Mon­i­tor­ing ana­lyt­ics and results on a reg­u­lar basis will help you deci­pher what your audi­ence is look­ing for and what they are most inter­est­ed in. Remem­ber, post­ing con­sis­tent­ly will keep your audi­ence engaged and help you grow your social media presence. 

Some social media mar­ket­ing mis­takes can be avoid­ed by know­ing what plat­form you should be focus­ing on. Not all social media plat­forms are the right ones for you. Choos­ing the best one based on the prod­ucts and ser­vices you pro­vide will attract the audi­ence you want. Each plat­form has a dif­fer­ent audi­ence and spend­ing your lim­it­ed resources on the right one can pre­vent wast­ed time, ener­gy, and money. 

Let us help you avoid mak­ing social media mis­takes! With over 25 years of expe­ri­ence in mar­ket­ing, we can guide you through the plan­ning process and estab­lish a clear direc­tion and uni­fied mes­sag­ing for all of your mar­ket­ing efforts. Take the next step and con­tact us for a free audit today!