Social media marketing offers a huge potential to businesses when it is done right. It can help you grow your brand, improve your revenue, and grow your customer base.

However, if you are making certain social media mistakes, then your efforts can be futile. These are the 12 social media mistakes to avoid.

Dismissing Social Media Marketing

Some marketers believe social media is not effective for their industry or demographic. This is attributed to the misconception that social media is only for tech-savvy teenagers. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Social media is now being used by all classes of people. If you have an effective social media marketing strategy, you can beat your competition hands down.

Not Having a Plan

No matter what you are doing, without a plan, you are likely to fail. This is also the case with social media marketing. Many marketers fall into this trap.

You need to approach social media the same way you do planning for other product promotional campaigns. Make sure there are specific goals, a budget, and a solid plan. The plan will outline what you want to achieve.

Failure to Network

Social media is not only about sharing posts. Having thousands of followers who are not your target market will have no impact on your results.

Instead, you should attract and engage people who have the same interests and views as yours. This will help you build and expand your network. In this way, you can increase the exposure of your content to millions of people.

Opening Too Many Accounts

Many marketers make the mistake of opening too many accounts on every social media network. Managing these accounts requires a lot of resources. It stretches the marketing budget and produces little results.

If you have a small budget, you should focus on the top social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. It is advisable to allocate more resources to the social network with promising results.

Using Irrelevant Hashtags

Before you use hashtags, make sure they are relevant to your brand. Using hashtags will increase the exposure of your content. However, you should only use hashtags your audience is following.

When creating content, make sure you research hashtags. This will ensure the content you produce is relevant.

Being Too Promotional

Customers are easily turned off by overly promotional marketing campaigns. Although you need to highlight your services and products, you should find a balance between value and promotional content.

It is advisable to build online relationships with your audience. As a result, you will engage them more.

Using Low-Quality Visuals

Studies have shown that customers move past social media posts with low-quality images or videos. Remember you have a few seconds to catch the attention of the target audience. Thus, you cannot afford to post bad visuals.

Graphics, images, and videos ought to be part of your strategy. Consider hiring an expert who specializes in creating visual content.

Not Responding to Customers

Recent studies have shown that customers are likely to buy your products if you respond to their questions on social media. Also, you are likely to build loyalty and some customers can share their positive experiences on their profiles.

You should make it imperative to respond to questions faster. As you know, customers are naturally impatient. If you delay answering them, they can lose confidence in your brand. You can use social monitoring tools to know when people have asked questions about your brand.

Not Tracking Your Performance

The good thing about social media marketing is that you can track your performance. When you track your results, you can make appropriate strategic changes in your target audience and campaigns.

For instance, if there is a non-performing ad, you can stop it. This will save you the money you can spend on other performing ads.

Remember it takes time and a lot of testing to get the desired results. Therefore, keep tracking and optimizing your social media campaigns.

Treating All Social Media Networks as Same

This is another social media marketing mistake to avoid. A lot of businesses post the same content on all their social platforms. Ideally, they copy-paste the same content.

Each social media network is unique in several ways. Also, they vary in terms of marketing tools, features, behaviors, interests, and demographics. You should take into account your marketing strategies and updates for social media networks.

Buying Followers

Buying social media followers is not even a mistake, it is a sin. Many brands have been caught buying followers or participating in exchange programs. Unfortunately, this does not bring any meaningful results. It only soothes the brand’s ego. Some brands have been banned forever for engaging in this activity. 

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As an online entrepreneur, you have to be wary of insidious traps that waste your time. These traps can rob you of your energy, focus, and time if you allow them. You need to know they exist, block them, and stay alert.

These are 10 insidious traps that waste online entrepreneurs’ time and how to deal with them.

Email

Many online entrepreneurs waste a lot of time reading and responding to emails. You might be surprised to learn that you spend about 2 hours daily on email.

It is advisable to limit the amount of time you spend on email. Set aside a few minutes to check your email and respond to your emails.

Web Surfing

There are times you are searching for important things only to end up surfing the web. This is especially the case when you open your social media accounts.

Make sure you track your time online. You cannot know you have a problem unless you measure it. After knowing the extent of online surfing, you should take steps to limit it.

Only surf the web when looking for important information. Avoid stopping by to check social media updates. Ensure your social media accounts are logged out always.

Meetings

Research has shown that online entrepreneurs spend most of their time on meetings. Some meetings are a must. However, you should ensure they are short.

Understand when a meeting is necessary and when it is time-wasting.

Although it is necessary to get status updates, getting them through email is better than scheduling a meeting. Schedule for a meeting if only there is confusion.

When you call a meeting, make sure you send the agenda in advance. This ensures everyone is aware of what is required and all involved persons can prepare.

Perfectionism

The work looks good, but it can be made better. Why not change the font? This is what is called perfectionism. You should avoid it at all costs.

The truth is that nearly everything can be improved by doing some tweaks. If you believe the task you were doing is nearly complete, you can set it aside and have a look after a day or later.

Not Delegating

Some online entrepreneurs like the DIY route. Although you are your own boss, it does not mean everything should be done by you. For instance, you want to be the writer, editor, designer, and SEO expert.

If you find you are not good at something, you need to learn how to do it. Unfortunately, this will end up taking a lot of your time.

Learn to delegate some tasks. This will free up a lot of your time. Determine some of the tasks that can be done by your employees and assign them with deadlines. Some tasks like accounting can be done by online systems, such as QuickBooks.

Constantly Looking for New Processes and Vendors

Sometimes you feel you are not getting the best services and prices. It is a good idea to carry out a periodic audit to find vendors that can offer better terms. Also, you might need to consolidate services with a single provider. This will make it easier to manage your bills and relationships.

Unfortunately, new processes come with a learning curve. Thus, you should not just try something new just because you need change.

Instead of wasting time looking for new processes and vendors, hire someone to do the legwork for you.

Being Disorganized

Very few people are natural organizers. Studies have shown that online entrepreneurs waste a lot of time because they are not organized.

Most people have not learned organizational skills that can help them deal with increasing demands and workloads.

Make sure you are always organized. This will reduce the amount of time you spend searching for missing documents.

Not Taking Breaks

It is a fact that you cannot concentrate for over 90 minutes without taking a break. Most online entrepreneurs are known to work for long hours without taking a break. Unfortunately, you will end up spending extra time on tasks.

For you to stay productive and focused, you should take routine breaks. This will ensure you are always refreshed and with renewed energy to tackle your tasks. Also, this will protect you against burnout.

Procrastinating

Procrastinating is a time sucker. When left unattended, it becomes a vicious cycle that can leave you unproductive and demotivated.

You can avoid procrastination by breaking your working time into small manageable chunks. Try to do your most unenjoyable tasks in the morning.

Multitasking

Doing multiple things at the same time is counterproductive. Studies have shown that multitasking makes you less productive. This is because you need to switch between tasks instead of focusing on a single task at a time. Also, it can harm your brain.

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