Social media is obviously an important part of any marketing campaign. However, knowing exactly how to use social media to attract new customers and build your brand can be quite difficult, especially when you’re first starting out and have no real idea what you’re doing.
So, to help you skip some of these growing pains and jump right to the part where you’re successful, here are a few mistakes most beginners make.
Trying to Do Too Much
When you first break into digital marketing, you realise the internet, like much of life, is divided into niches. Some niches are large, and some are unbelievably small. In the beginning, our natural inclination is to go after the biggest possible audience, and this usually means trying to connect with as many niches as possible.
But all this usually does is erode the quality of your content. It’s much better to stick to one niche, build up an engaged following, and then work with that group before you expand into other areas. It will help you connect more with your audience, and it will also help tell you what you need to do to be successful with social media.
Assuming Influencers Are Experts
Everyone’s path to the top is different, and most people don’t want to accept their success is just as much the product of luck as their specific effort. This doesn’t mean what others have done won’t work, it just means it’s not guaranteed to work for you.
By all means, ask people with large followings how they got there, and listen closely to their advice. But don’t assume that just because they have a large following they know all the answers. Doing this can either close you off to strategies that might work or cause you to pursue ones that have little chance of success.
Skimping on Content
Want to know the secret to a successful content marketing strategy, whether it includes social media or not? Wait for it… Wait for it, it’s…good content!
It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people think good content marketing is about something other than content.
People will stop to read, watch, or look at anything, so long as it’s interesting and relevant. So, spend time figuring out what your audience considers interesting and relevant, and then invest time and resources into creating great content centred around those ideas. This will put you in a much better position for success than pretty much anything else you could do.
Forgetting Marketing is a Process
In the business world, we all like to think that we can succeed by spending lots of time researching potential strategies, making plans, and then implementing these strategies. But this causes us to look at different aspects of our business as mere decisions.
However, marketing is not something you can “decide,” per se. Instead, you need to treat it as a process. Do your homework and go with what you think has the best chance to succeed but be open to the idea you may have gotten it all wrong. Then, when you feel it’s time to make a change, do it, and then repeat the process. Never let up nor assume you’ve got it all figured out. That’s a great way to get left behind.
Hopefully, now that you know about these common beginner’s mistakes, you’ll be less likely to commit them yourself, helping you achieve success more quickly with your social media marketing strategy.