Marketing agencies everywhere are hopping on the social media bandwagon. It's a very powerful marketing tool, but you don't want to be the marketing agency caught using it in the wrong way.
Over and over again, the same mistakes are being made on popular social media sites and it's costing these marketing agencies their prospective clients.
Well thankfully, we're here to help you kick these bad habits. Listed below are the 20 most common social media mistakes marketing agencies are making. Let's just hope you aren't one of them! Check out our list of The Bottom 20.
Content Mistakes
Hashtag Overload
Hashtags are brilliant. They provide context and categorize your content to reach a specific audience, but let's not get hashtag happy...cramming your post with too many hashtags distracts the readers and makes the post too cluttered.
Solution
Depending on the medium, two to four highly relevant hashtags (two for Twitter, two+ for Instagram) should be used to provide context and aim your post towards a certain audience.
Posting Non-relevant, Engagement Baiting Questions
You've all probably done it, posted that pointless discussion question like "What's your favorite salsa?" Do you really care? I'd probably guess no. So stop wasting your time and your audience's time. The likes that you are getting from these questions are cheap likes and don't do anything to build your brand awareness.
Solution
You guessed it! Post more relevant information for your audience. This doesn't mean the material has to be stale and boring, but stop asking questions just to ask them. Still engage your audience, but enhance the material you're posting.
Not Tagging Relevant Pages
It's a simple optimization tip that most people fail to take advantage of while they're talking about others in their posts.
Solution
A very simple solution that only includes a "@" sign. Start tagging people in your post when cross promoting a good or service. Your post will then show up on their "Post By Others" page and it will expand your audience. Now people can get to know your partners, and your partner's followers get to know you.
Not Creating Original Content
A huge part of marketing through social media is to become an authority figure in your industry and engage your audience. This can't be done if you are rehashing the work of others.
Solution
Create your own original content. This doesn't mean you can't share relevant images, videos and articles that have already been created, but be creative with it and make it your own. Your content should be specifically written to appeal to your specific audience and that can't be done if you are using someone else's work.Also, make sure you know your rights when it comes to your content being stolen.
Not Making The Most Out Of Your Bio
Your social media bio is the first thing people see while looking at your page. You want to have them at "hello" and many don't take advantage of this opportunity.
Solution
Include your location and website URL in your social media bio and then give it a little something extra with a little creativity. This is a perfect opportunity to give people a reason to press that "follow" button if they don't already know what your company does.
Mistakes Made When Sharing
Over-Posting or Not Posting Enough
It's tough to know how much you should be posting. If you post too much your audience could read it as spammy and could be a major turn off and lead to an unfollow. However, if you don't post enough, you're not creating awareness and you might not be reaching your entire audience.
Solution
Follow this guide to know how many times you should be posting for each social media platform.
- Twitter - 14 times per day, from midnight to 10 p.m., never more than once per hour. On weekends, 7 times per day, from 3 a.m. to 9 p.m., roughly every three hours.
- Facebook - 2 times per day, 7 days a week, around 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
- LinkedIn - 1 time per day, around 8 a.m. No weekends.
- Google+ - 2 times per day, around 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. No weekends.
Sharing The Same Content Across The Board
The problem isn't sharing the same content across all social media; the problem comes in when you start using the different social media platforms as if they are the same. It may seem harmless to just push your tweet to Facebook or LinkedIn with no revision, but this could come across as your agency being lazy.
Solution
Tailor each message to the specific social media platform you are posting to. While you are looking to hashtag and stand out when posting to Twitter, you should have a more professional approach when posting to LinkedIn. Keep in mind what audience you are reaching out to and stay clear of scheduling tweets to also post to Facebook or LinkedIn without any revisions.
Using Too Many Widgets
Of course you want people to share the content that's on your site, but what are the chances they will share it to MySpace, FourSquare and Yelp? Having too many sharing widgets is counterproductive and to be honest...it's just a huge clutter.
Solution
Unless you have an equal split of your audience among different sites, you can afford to get rid of most of them. Keep it simple and keep it to only the sites that your audience is most likely to be on.
Asking For Shares or Retweets
When you ask your audience to please share or retweet your post, it not only comes off extremely needy but it offers no engagement. Much like asking non-relevant, engagement baiting questions, that too, does nothing beneficial for your business.
Solution
Create content that your audience views as something that is worth sharing and retweeting. You could also include a link that would help spread the word and generate more leads.
Sending Automated Direct Messages
This seems to be a popular approach when greeting new followers. However, what people should know is that it comes off robotic and impersonal. Your audience might view it as spammy and it could result in an unfollow.
Solution
This is not to say the direct messages are to be banned. They can be used to your advantage, but the key is to provide value and create a conversation that is personal and gives people a reason to follow you. This will result in a happy audience, which will increase traffic and ultimately result in a happy agency.
Paying For Fake Fans or Likes
Fake fans add very little to your community and will not be as engaged as real followers, so why are you going to waste your money on them? More likes and followers doesn't equal more sales. A quick (or fake) fan isn't going generate more sales for your agency.
Solution
Focus on the quality of your followers, not the quantity. It's more valuable for an agency to have 100,000 highly engaged advocates, than 1,000,000 followers or fans. The goal of your agency is to build loyal, long-term relationships because those people will then become your brand advocates.
The Voice Of The Post
Humanizing Your Brand
Humanizing your brand was a popular tactic when agencies were sounding "too corporate" on social media. However, now agencies are taking this too far, posting non-relevant memes and politically charged statements on their social media accounts.
Solution
You need to consider the differences between humans and brands and then act with discretion. For example, humans bicker. Brands shouldn't. Humans can act petty. Brands shouldn't. A balance needs to be had with your content you aren't the "stuffy, boring, corporate" agency, but so you also aren't confused for a personal account.
Talking Too Much and Not Listening Enough
There's no balance if your agency is talking too much on social media and not listen enough, but you also don't want to listen too much and not talk...the struggle is real.
Solution
Have a balance between talking and listening. Social media is about making connections and much like the real world, the more you listen to what your audience is saying, the more attracted they will become to you. So stop trying to always force your message upon your audience, take a step back and listen.
Not Engaging With The Audience
As an agency, if you are only posting about your goods and services, you're not successfully engaging with your audience. They feel no connection with you and we all know that a huge part of marketing is the emotional connection you create.
Solution
Ask questions, share humor, ask for opinions and feedback on your goods/services...the list could go on forever. The most important part is to get them involved and talking. Your audience could be your greatest advocators and promoters.
Sounding Impersonal/Automated
People are on social media to interact with other people. There's no connection made when they feel like they are being talked to by a robot or automated message. This could potentially cost you followers.
Solution
Try adding a personal touch to your message and this will make a significant impact. Answering with a little wit in your response can leave a positive impression.
Deleting Negative Comments
As an agency, you cannot afford to delete or ignore negative comments. It will only hurt your company image and result in a PR nightmare.
Solution
It's best to apologize (even if you haven't done anything wrong) and then offer to contact them by email to further discuss the problem. However you decide to handle the problem, make sure you keep your cool and keep it professional. A simple acknowledgement will result in a very happy customer and be a great PR boost.
Mistakes Made While Analyzing Social Media Efforts
Not Using Management Tools
Without management tools, managing social media can become very time consuming which is not very efficient for your agency.
Solution
Try using tools, such as HubSpot, to schedule content, collaborate with members and monitor results. This will cut down the time spent trying to reach every social media platform by yourself. Just make sure you're careful not to automate all of your posts because your audience will pick up on this.
Not Tracking Activity
If you're not tracking activity at all, your agency will have no idea how your social media presence effects your website traffic, goals and ROI. You also have no idea what to keep doing and what to stop doing because you aren't measuring what works and what doesn't. This could potentially be extremely hurtful to your agency.
Solution
You want to measure how often people are interacting with your agency via social media, what types of keywords and hashtags are driving the best results and where your social media traffic is stemming from. There are a lot of great tools you can use to measure these factors, one of the more popular ones is Google Analytics.
Not Including Measurable CTA In Posts
If you aren't including call-to-actions in your social media posts, there is very little to measure.
Solution
Include short links to a resource, webpage or blog post in your social media posts. That way there is a factor that can be measured.