Top 7 Social Media Mistakes That Make You Look Dumb

Social Media Mistakes

Let me start by asking you a simple question and what I will also want from you is a simple answer.

How long have been marketing your business on the social media? And what has been your result so far? Can the outcome be equated with the time you've spent doing it? Please answer this in the comment question.

The truth you might not have heard is that it does not matter how long you've been doing it if you're not doing it well......You'll fail.

While we're more familiar with marketing than we do about health as marketers, we also know there are some marketing blunders we should always avoid.

For instance, I'm much aware that under no circumstance is it allowed to take two different types of anti-malaria tablet at once. While most of you may be nodding in agreement, few mistakes are sweeping the social media arena which many of you may not be so aware of.

In this guide, I will share with you seven social media blunders equivalent to the anti-malaria tablet combo (listed above) that have been committed by several top marketers, which further proves that no one is above mistakes (not even Lisa and I)

Before I get to the main points of this post, I want you to understand that making mistakes on social media is often easier than you think.

However, most of these mistakes won't often lead to a disaster that will destroy your brand but what will happen is that it will often make your readers to shake their head in disappointment and then leave without telling you.

And believe me; once they're out due to such mistakes, you've lost them forever.

With that out of the way, let's get started.

Top 7 Social Media Mistakes You Should Avoid Like a Plague 1. Trying to Kill 5 Birds with One Stone

Have you ever tried to kill many birds using one stone? If you've never attempted this before, I will like you to give it a shot and then, tell me your experience.

For those of you that will not carry out this assignment, here is the simple answer.... You'll miss all the birds, plain and straightforward.

The same is similar to social media marketing. I've seen many people trying to spread their wings across all the social media networks out there. Yes, I also like the idea of "being everywhere" but it doesn't work in some cases.

In fact, when it comes to social media, being everywhere is a bad advice especially when you're just starting. Check the time you puts into Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google+, etc. If you combine all these time and put it on Facebook and Twitter alone, your result will be mind blowing.

According to Tony Gaskins, Consistency is the key! If you can't be consistent, then you can't be anything.

Instead of dabbling across all the social media networks on the internet, you should pick few and put all your efforts on them.

As a starter, begin with Twitter and Facebook, stay consistent and build a substantial audience on these two networks, maybe when you've gotten enough audience there, you can now try some other ones.

Spending time on all of them will only get you one thing......."Nothing".

2. Regularly Posting The Same Thing Over and Over Again

Some years ago, one of the traditional advice often heard on the internet regards to social media marketing was to post the same thing multiple times a day so you can reach as many people as possible. The reason being that social media used to operate using chronological feeds just like our normal blog, the newest post appears at the top. I'm sorry to tell you that today; this act is likely going to lose you traffic and followers than anything else.

All of that has changed today. When it comes to what appears at the top of your feed, relevance is now the primary deciding factor. For example, if you have liked a page and interacted with it before, new posts from that page will appear at the top of your feed even 24 hours later.

But if you post the same thing multiple times you are watering down your engagement per post, hence your followers are less likely not going to receive your updates.

Bottom Line: Don't dilute the engagement of your posts by posting it frequently instead, post different stories per day and also make sure whatever you share is of great value.

3. Being Overly Irritating

I might not have used the right word here, but I couldn't think of any other way to express what I mean.

Do you know the fastest way to get to your readers/audience nerve? I will tell you. " Start tweeting non-stop advertisement for a company to them ". I'm sure you already know what their reaction will be; they'll buy you a cup of coffee. (I wish this is true).

The main reason why most people come to sites like Facebook and Twitter is to engage and learn about new ideas. While they might be interested to hear about new products and services, they're not receptive to getting all those uninterested messages persuading them to spend money. This act is generally referred to as "spam".

I've seen many marketers doing this unholy act on social media, and if you're one of them, I beg you to stop now else, you will soon find out that you've lost all your followers.

Worst case scenario, they will report you to the sites administrators and your account will be blocked for life.

What to do instead? Start creating engaging contents that will always wow your readers; they might eventually decide to take you up on whatever it is you're promoting. Just focus on building the relationship first and the money will naturally come later.

4. Creating Too Many Accounts on One Site

I've seen many marketers creating multiple accounts on sites like Twitter and Facebook and pointing all of them to one website.

First of all, this act is not legally right and might put you in trouble if adequate precaution is not taken. Maintaining these numerous accounts will also be very time consuming unless you have the money to hire social media managers.

But the truth is that it's better to put all the efforts into maintaining one active account, this will earn you more respect and followers in the long run.

You may think you're smart by gaming the system but, you will end up building irrelevant and untargeted audience that will not care about what you're doing, is this what you want?

Therefore, desist from indulging in such act, stay clean and build your audience legally, you will be happy at last.

5. Focusing All Your Marketing Efforts On Social Media

I think this is the most important of it all. Most marketers put lots of efforts into building social media following forgetting they don't own that property.

I discovered that most people don't know what success means when it comes to social media marketing. For the fact they're getting lots of likes and comments on their campaigns to them, is a sign of success. To me, it's a sign of failure.

I will tell you why shortly.

A good social media marketer knows that social it's only the first major point of call for their targeted audience to reach them, they understands that social media needs to lead to somewhere else.

Think about it like this, what if those people just come to your status, likes, comments and move on to something else, what happens next? Have you made the sale? I don't know if you're getting the point.

As a serious marketer, Top 7 Social Media Mistakes That Make You Look Dumb Click To Tweet where you can transform them into paying customers. Apart from this, you're only wasting your time and perhaps, money on social media.

Those social media metrics will not pay the bills so, get smart. Even if you don't have a blog or a business website yet, start thinking of how to get one as soon as possible else. The benefits of having a website for your business are quite enormous.

What if you gathered all those fans on Facebook and you wake up one day and discover your account have been deleted, will you call the Police? Noah Kagan had a similar experience some time ago.

He lost a Facebook account that was making him lots of money.

After that ugly experience, he advised that you should never rely on other people's channel to obtain customers again. Check the screenshot below.

It's better to control the destiny of your business yourself.

Therefore, stop relying on those social media metrics. Build your own estate and then, direct those social media leads to your estate so you can convert them into lasting customers.

6. Talking But Not Listening to Your Audience

Social media is not an office where you come, give your workers strict instructions and then, leave without allowing them to air their views so, stop bossing around like a boss and listen.

To me, I always take it personal when a marketer posts something on Twitter or Facebook and I try to comment on it; maybe I asked him a question, but he never shows up to answer me. Sometimes, he will even like your comment but will not respond. What message are you trying to pass to me in doing this?

Social media is supposed to involve multiple people interacting with each other so start paying attention and listen to your audience from today. Even if what the person said is irrelevant, it's your duty to find a way and respond to him without sounding like a boss.

If someone leaves you a message, comments or likes your status, send him a thank you message to show you appreciate him over time, this will earn you more respect and credibility. It does not matter how big or powerful you are. The only factor that will make you ignore this advice is if you don't give a f*ck about your audience.

7. Not Adding Images to Your Articles on Facebook

Obviously, not using visuals on your posts on Facebook will perhaps hinder the posts engagement and prevent it from reaching to the right people.

Recent research carried out by Zabisco discovered that 40 out of 100 people will respond better to visual information than plain text.

According to Hubspot, a good image can create a social buzz, increase brand awareness and build a more impressive landscape for your social media platform. So, instead of posting contents that will struggle to get attention, get an image to assist you with the job.

The next time you want to share something of great importance on Facebook, look for a relevant image and use it to power that post. Stop posting articles without pictures.

Conclusion on Social Media Mistakes

It's usually easy to make these mistakes without being aware of them, therefore, I urge you to be more mindful of how you approach social media marketing.

Take all the mistakes I shared here, and device means to avoid them at all cost. If you do, you will see your social media engagement and business growing higher than you never thought possible.

How many social media mistakes have you made lately or have seen by others? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!