If you want social media marketing to work for your business in 2019, it is imperative you develop a game plan now. Social networking can be a phenomenal growth lever for your company, but you must be incredibly strategic in your approach to brand development and audience acquisition. Understanding what not to do to grow your business on social media is just as important as knowing what to do. If you want to use online outreach to grow your business, following are the top social media marketing mistakes to avoid in 2019.
No Strategy = Looming Failure
If you don’t develop a detailed social media marketing strategy for 2019, your chances of achieving success with customer outreach will be significantly diminished. You must understand what you want to achieve with social networking, how you will implement your game plan, who will be responsible for audience acquisition, and how often you will analyze your results. The more detailed your social media marketing strategy, the likelier it is you will be happy with your ROI (return on investment).
Too Many Platforms = Not Enough Time
Another critical social media marketing mistake to avoid is building a brand presence on too many social platforms. If your target customers aren’t using a specific social networking site or forum, there’s a good chance you shouldn’t be devoting a great deal of time to that platform. Understand where the bulk of your customers are and then double-down on the platforms where your ROI is likely to be the greatest. While you still want to have profiles on most major social media platforms just for SEO (search engine optimization), you needn’t devote a great deal of time to those networks if your customers aren’t there.
High Follower Counts = Quality Followers
Having large social media follower counts does not mean you have engaged social media followers. You are better off having a smaller number of active social media followers than hordes of zombie followers who never interact with your brand. The whole point of using social media outreach is to build brand awareness and increase sales. If your brand is engaging on social media and you’re not improving brand awareness of turbocharging profits, what exactly are you doing?
Brand Activity = Awesome Analytics
Just because your company is using social media networking, that doesn’t mean what you’re doing is working. If you’re not actively tracking your social media analytics and adjusting your outreach efforts, you’re likely wasting your time. You must monitor engagement with you social media posts and see how your social networking efforts are being indexed by search engines to understand if your social media marketing strategy is working. Audience engagement + social media search engine indexing is a powerful combination for businesses wanting super-sized growth rates.
Make sure you’re not making these critical social media marketing mistakes in 2019 and you’ll improve your odds of increasing revenues and growing your company. Succeeding at social media means you must be smart with your approach and continually monitor the ROI of your efforts. Focus on what is working, pay attention to trends with long-term growth possibilities, and make sure you’re offering helpful and informative content to your target audience. Social media marketing can be a powerful customer acquisition tool when it is combined with strategic analysis and planning.
