We audit and review a lot of social media accounts in our line of work. And while we’re not always perfect with our own (ahem, you do know the story about the cobblers kids’ shoes, right? ) we do have some valuable insight to pass along and help other marketing managers not make the same mistakes we see time and time again.

Here are the top 6 mistakes we see most marketing managers make with social media and actions you can take right now to avoid a similar fate of no engagement, no followers, no sales, and basically the fate of shouting into a void.

Not treating it as an extension of your customer service channel
Not being consistent with your content – show up!
Only posting promotional material – or selling on every post
Posting and forgetting to engage
Relying too heavily on social to drive leads – you don’t own Facebook/ Instagram/ LinkedIn, etc.
Sharing only memes and funny videos when it’s not on-brand

1. Not treating social media as an extension of your customer service channel.

Social media is a very convenient way for your customers and potential customers to contact you. Many marketing managers either ignore this channel as a customer service opportunity or don’t set up efficient systems to stay on top of it. Using tools like Hubspot or Hootsuite can help manage your communications on your social channels all in one place. Make sure your customer service team has the access they need to be able to respond to questions as they come in.

2. Not being consistent

Have you ever stumbled upon a companies Facebook or LinkedIn page to learn more about them and see they haven’t posted anything new since 2016? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when that happens?

For me, I honestly wonder if they are still in business. Now, that’s something you don’t want potential customers to think when they land on your social media pages! Consistency has to be one of the biggest mistakes we see being made. Staying consistent is absolutely one of the most challenging things to do for a business to do, especially if you have a small team.
But here are some ideas that can help you with creating consistent content for your business page:
• Tips, Tricks, and a General Overview of Content Marketing
• How to Never Run Out of Social Media Content Ideas
• How To Create Engaging Social Media Content

3. Only posting promotional material – or selling on every post

Social media is a two-way street. If you are only posting about sales or products or asking for something in every post, you are missing the point of social media. Yes, you are a business, you are here to sell, but I would argue, more importantly, you are here to HELP. Social media is a beautiful opportunity to learn more about your customers, the challenges they face, and how you can be of service. You can’t do that if you are only talking and not listening.

Ask questions. Share tutorials. Teach your followers something new. This also helps build trust, and when you do post something promotional, you will get a heap more traction from it.

4. Posting and forgetting to engage

Don’t forget to keep the “social” in social media! Ask questions. Interact with your followers. When you publish a post, make sure you are checking for any reactions, comments, and shares. Respond to every comment. Every. Single. One. Even if it’s just a, “thank you” or “I agree!’

This not only shows your audience you care enough about their comment to respond, which gives them the warm-feelies inside but, and now this is a big insider tip: The more engagement a post gets, the MORE people will see it!

Let me repeat that:

The more engagement a post gets, the MORE people will see it!

If you’ve had your business on social media for a while, you know the organic reach is abysmal at best. With organic reach only being about 6%, the more you can do to boost that percentage the better.

/rant

Manually post something now and again. Respond as soon as you can to questions and comments.

**5. Relying too heavily on social to drive leads**

Remember, social media is just one of the many channels you can use to drive leads and sales for your business. Social media can be fantastic but it’s not a replacement for your entire sales funnel. You want to drive traffic to your website, get your follower’s emails, and close sales. There are a bazillion ways to do that, (and give us a call if you need a hand!) Know what your funnel looks like for a social follower to become a customer.

And remember, you don’t own Facebook/ Instagram/ LinkedIn, etc. – don’t put all your eggs in their basket! Their main goal is to keep people on their platforms, not to help you grow your business. Use them, don’t rely on them.

6. Sharing only memes and funny videos (when it’s not on-brand to do so)

OK, everyone loves a good meme or joke, but I really don’t care what my dentist has to say about the Tiger King. Mmm kay?

Stay on-brand. This doesn’t mean that memes are a no-no, or you can’t include humor. Maybe humor is on-brand for your business. Just keep in mind, what you post to your personal Facebook page may not be appropriate to post on your business page.

All jokes aside, while there are a lot of mistakes that we see marketing managers making on social media, it can all boil down to two things; not having an end goal and not having a strategy in place to reach that goal. The two are work together and are never mutually exclusive.

If you have a goal for your social media but are lacking a strategy (or vice versa) start the conversation with Odd Dog and we’ll get you going in the right direction with our proven data-driven approach.