9 Common Social Media Mistakes

Social media networks if well used can be one of the biggest sources of traffic to your site. Most bloggers get to social media hoping to benefit from the big traffic presence there but get frustrated when things don’t work out as they anticipated. In this article we look at some of the common social media mistakes most users make on these networks that could be contributing to them not getting the best results in terms of traffic to their websites or engagements on their posts. 

Sharing only your own content

Sharing only your own content may not lead to your fan base growing that much, in fact your audience may get bored by the same content coming from same source. Try as much as possible to share content from other sources, this will increase engagement and your audience base will grow significantly.

9 common social media mistakes

Posting the same content across different platforms

Try as much as possible to understand the different social media platforms that you are using in terms of their content expectations. Having tailored content for each platform increases reach and engagement. E.g. Content related to careers will work well on LinkedIn better than other networks, Hashtags can help increase your reach on Instagram but they quite don’t  have the same effect on Facebook.

Focusing on quantity over quality

Posting less but quality content will increase your reach and engagement. Reducing the number of posts that you make in a day, enables you to focus more on the quality of the posts rather than quantity.

Not uploading videos onto social media platforms

Note that native videos are likely to be shared more times than YouTube videos on social media platforms. So ensure that you upload your videos directly to your social media other than posting YouTube links.

Not boosting the right posts

When it comes to Facebook ads, do not just boost any posts that you think may perform well, rather look for those existing Facebook posts that have a high engagement rate. This gives you an indication of how successful the post is likely to be when boosted. To find details on engagement rate, go to your Facebook page insights posts tab, there you can be able to see the engagement rates for the published posts. Boost the posts with highest engagement rates.

Related Resources: Social Media Marketing for Small Business, how to create a successful strategy

Not replying to questions on social media

Try as much as possible to reply quickly to all the mentions and messages on your Facebook page, Twitter profile and Instagram profile from one place say by using your preferred social media monitoring and engagement  tool.  If you respond to your audience, they are likely to come back or share the good experience with other people.

Not targeting a specific audience for your content

Try to limit your posts to the relevant audience, for example by using Facebook, you can easily target your posts to a given audience that is more relevant to what you are promoting hence increasing the engagement rate.

Using only landscape videos and images

If you compare Landscape & Square videos and images, you will notice that Square videos and images tend to perform better on Facebook page and Twitter profile. Therefore it is worth trying to experiment to find out which videos and images perform better.

Unlock the secrets to success in business, digital marketing, personal finance, and more by subscribing to our newsletter from Business and Life Tips 

Being on all social media platforms

Take stock of your social media profiles and consider channels that are performing for you and those that aren’t. You can decide to stop using certain platforms if they are not working for you. Fewer channels enables you focus more on better content and engage more with your audience.

You can also read: 10 Common mistakes bloggers make

Please you may follow us and share:

Comments

275 responses to “9 Common Social Media Mistakes”

  1. These tips were really helpful!

    1. H Jacqie, thanks for dropping by.

  2. letsgoawandering Avatar
    letsgoawandering

    Great Information and very helpful when changing social media plan… thank you

  3. Your posts are always informative and thought provoking. I am at the point where I am getting conversions but I am overwhelmed with so many social media platforms. My next blog post will be another feature that I call Meet the Artist. These are virtual interviews with other artists and I when I did the first two I realized that the backlinks brought in new people interested in the niche that serves me. Now I need to look at which platform to concentrate on and I think this might be Instagram.

    1. Hi, thanks for your insightful feedback. Yes, you need to invest your time and resources in the network where you get the most engagement.

  4. Very helpful information, thank you! I’ve been promoting other bloggers’ work as well as my own primarily on Twitter. Time to expand to one or two more outlets.

    1. Hi, I appreciated your feedback.

  5. Thank you for sharing. You are right it’s not necessary to be on all social media apps. Something I need to unlearn

    1. Hi Raki, glad you learned something from this post. Thanks.

  6. Hey John, Thanks for sharing this article. It has well-explained the mistakes that most of the businesses make in social media marketing. And I am completely agree with you, most of the businesses jump into social media marketing without any proper planning and end up doing most of these mistakes. Hopefully now they’ll get to learn from your blog.

    1. Hi Jackson, yes, succeeding at social media marketing requires a plan. Thanks.

  7. Loved your tip about not being on too many platforms. I think people think they need to be everywhere, when sometimes that keeps them from engaging. Great tips!!

    1. True, focusing on what brings in the most results is the best way of leveraging the power of social media marketing.

  8. Thanks for sharing this! Great advice

  9. Thanks for sharing this, social media is tricky, and knowing what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it is helpful. I like the tip at the end about being on all social media, because it is a time-waster. So, it is better to focus on only the platforms that drive traffic to your website.

    1. True! thanks for your feedback.

  10. Awesome article! thanks for sharing. 🙂

  11. Thanks for the info. I need to experiment with videos.

    1. Hi Erin, you are welcomed.

  12. Awesome article John! I rarely read articles about social media mistakes and I must say yours is well written. I like it when you said to try as much as possible to understand the different social media platforms that you are using in terms of their content expectations. Having tailored content for each platform increases reach and engagement.

    Angela Giles | http://www.angelagiles.com

    1. Hi Angela, thanks for visiting and for your insightful comments.

  13. I had never thought about square images and videos getting more traffic! I think you are right though. I will have to try and implement this going forward. I also need to reply to comments quicker and will be looking into some of the tools that you suggest. Thanks John!

    1. Hi Rachel, I really appreciate your feedback! You are welcomed.

  14. Guilty of a few of these. I’ll keep this article as a guide. Thanks for sharing.

  15. Very helpful tips. Thanks for sharing!

  16. Just starting to use social media to promote my blog. Having read your article I am making a couple of mistakes so will need to rectify these.

    1. Thanks for visiting. Am glad you found this helpful.

  17. Stevie-Mari Avatar
    Stevie-Mari

    Wow great tips! While I do most of them I’m definitely going to practice the ones I don’t!

    1. Thanks for your feedback!

  18. These are great tips! I never would have thought of some of these!

  19. I agree with the last point. I try to focus on Facebook and Twitter because it is Instagram enhancement is low!

  20. Thank you for these tips. I’m slowly learning more about operating with social media so any help I get such as this is appreciated.

    1. Hi Lee, you are welcomed.

  21. These are all really great tips! I had not even thought about square photos versus landscape. Along with videos! Thank you for sharing.

    1. Hi, thanks for visiting. Welcome.

  22. All of your tips were very active and on point. A learned a lot of new things and also stuff that I already do but need to be consistent on. Especially sharing others content!! I will share this post on Twitter. And start to follow you blog for more tips!!

    1. Hi Chastity, am glad this was a helpful post to you. You are most welcomed.

  23. This is some great information. I definitely don’t want to make these social media mistakes.

    1. Hi Shannon, am glad you’ve learned something from the post.

  24. Social media is meant to be engaging and social (hence the name “social media”) and for organizations, more engagement on social media can translate into increased brand awareness, higher traffic to your site and more prospects in your marketing funnel. As you build trusted followers in your online community and give them quality content that’s relevant to them, you’ll see an increase in people viewing, liking and sharing your posts. But posts without the qualities that people like and share won’t engage anyone, won’t build your brand and won’t drive traffic back to your site and into your marketing funnel.

    1. Hi Monidipa, thanks very much for your insightful feedback! I totally agree with your points. Its all about producing high quality posts that people like that will attract high engagement.

  25. Such a great and very informative post I had the same mistake when I started using social media. So this post can be very heloful to others.

    1. Hey Preet, am grateful for your comments.

  26. Catherine Santiago Jose Avatar
    Catherine Santiago Jose

    This is such an amazing post and very informative as well. I’ve totally agree with everything you’ve cited here, this will definitely be a great help to all those bloggers out there.

    1. Hi Catherine, I really appreciate your feedback on this post.

  27. Jacque Hooper Avatar
    Jacque Hooper

    You always help me see things from a better perspective; thank you for sharing these tips, I need to remember quality over quantity is best.

  28. Elena Toma Avatar
    Elena Toma

    This is such an amazing article, very useful ! I can relate to all the mistakes you mentioned here !

    1. Hi Elena, thanks for your honest feedback.

  29. This is such a helpful article. Facebook. Groups are super important. Of all.. Facebook seems a little hard to get through
    But currently with all social media metrics getting tougher to compete with.. Social media marketing is on a rise.

    1. True, many bloggers are driving most of the traffic to their sites just with social media marketing.

  30. I couldn’t agree less with everything that you stated here. Thank for sharing these insightful tips.

    1. Hey Lydia, I appreciate your feedback very much.

  31. Really enjoyed this post – I need to work on my social media platforms, Instgram is the only one that I fully engage in so I need to make more effort.

    1. Hi Natalie, thanks for the visit.

  32. Social media is a huge part of blogging nowadays. It is very important to keep focus divided and not let your reader get bored. I am very guilty of being too lazy to make enough videos, I am more of a photo person myself. Awesome work on really most common mistakes

    1. Hi Lyosha, thanks for your insightful feedback.

  33. These are some great tips – I could probably share more of other peoples’ content. I will keep this in mind. I agree with you completely on quality over quantity!

    1. Thanks for your honest feedback Alexandra!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Join 900+ subscribers

Stay in the loop with everything you need to know.

The Freelance Content Marketing Writer: Find Your Perfect Clients, Make Tons of Money and Build the Business You Love!

Currently trending: