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.

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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

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Comments

275 responses to “9 Common Social Media Mistakes”

  1. Jaime Porter Avatar
    Jaime Porter

    As a new blogger, I found this post very informative and helpful! Thanks!

    1. Welcome. All the best in the blogging journey.

  2. Lots of great tips here! There are several things I want to try! What a relief that I can finally let go of twitter!

    1. Hi Jen, yes, it is better to focus on those networks that bring in most results, and redirect more time and energy to them.

  3. Oh, no, I think I’ve been making all these mistakes! Thank you so much for sharing this info! I try to make nice, easy to read posts but having difficulties finding the right target.

    1. Thanks for visiting, all the best.

  4. Thanks for the tips! I especially loved the idea of focusing on quality over quantity. It’s not a race, and I, for one, get tired of seeing “fluff”. I’ll be checking out some of your other posts as well.

  5. This is really helpful! Thank you soo much for sharing I am currenrly just starting out so these are some great tips.

    1. Hi Jayne, am grateful for your visit and your nice comments on this post. Welcome.

  6. Great article, John! I’m encouraged to keep up the good fight as ?

    1. Hi Tanya, am grateful for the visit, you are welcomed.

  7. A very usefull post! Thank you so much for your share 🙂

    1. Hi Mirela, appreciated.

  8. Thanks for the tips. I did not know about the square vs. landscape performance.

  9. As a beginner in blogging, I find this article very helpful and easy to understand. Thanks for posting!
    https://colourfulmishmash.wordpress.com/

  10. Thanks for this informative post! I have recently started my own social media channels for my website so this was perfect timing 🙂

  11. I could not agree more on sharing only your own content people do get bored. I try to share a post or two a week that is not mine.

    1. Yes, sharing other people’s content, is a great way to increase the audience base, which will benefit your content in the long run.

  12. These are great! Wish I’d read this 3 months ago, lol! I didn’t know about the native videos, that’s very good to know!!

  13. Such great tips! Thank you!

  14. This is certainly food for thought. Can you please tell me why native videos perform better than Youtube videos? Just curious. Thank you for this article!:)

    1. Hi, thanks for passing by, Native videos get more engagements since they are uploaded directly on social media or played directly in the feed as opposed to Youtube videos that are hosted at different place.

  15. Hi John thanks for sharing this. I saw on one of your responses to focus on FB groups – I think I will do that. I also know that I’m not engaging with Twitter at all (mainly focusing in IG as it’s so visual) and am not very comfortable with using twitter – one for the to do list! At the moment my posts from my blog and IG are posted across on twitter. I’ve made notes and will try to implement your tips. New to blogging so a lot to get to grips with at the beginning! 🙂

    1. Hi Miriam, am grateful for those insightful comments. Focusing on few is the right thing to do. Get the best performing networks and use them for maximum results.

  16. Great post! It’s definitely hard not to fall into the trap of signing up for every social media platform out there and posting on all of them. Tumblr and Twitter are my weakest ones and I’m debating on getting rid of them altogether. I don’t do anything on linkedin or google plus because my content I don’t feel will do well. I also agree about boosting other bloggers posts. It always seems like it’s one blogger vs. another but really we are community. We should stick together and help each other out! There’s plenty of room on the internet for all of us! 🙂

    1. Yes, when you share other blogger’s posts you increase your audience, and this works good for you in the long run.

  17. Great article… Thanks for sharing… 🙂

  18. Great post John! I am still new to the blogging world, so every bit of helpful information makes the difference! I am on more than a few social media sites, and I may trim that down some. As of now, I have noticed that Pinterest and Facebook bring in most of my traffic. I’ll work on enhancing my presence there. Thanks!

    1. Hi Bryan am grateful for your comments on the post. The few the better, especially the one’s bringing in more traffic.

  19. Oh wow, this is so good! My social media promotion is the absolute WORST and even as I’m trying bits & bobs I never get anywhere, mainly because I do the exact opposite of these! 😀

    1. Hi Susanna, thanks for dropping by and for your comments. Welcome.

  20. This is a very helpful information

  21. Good article. Great information

  22. All helpful tips! I agree with them!

    1. Your comments appreciated.

  23. I could definitely do more with native videos and posting other’s content. I’m glad I found your site. Definitely helpful.

    1. Hi, thanks for the visit and comments.

  24. Thanks for all these tips :). I am really glad for the tip on how to boost the right post on Facebook ad , because I think I used to post that I liked the most but it might not be the right one to promote my blog. I will try to take a look at my insights before boosting a post.

    Noémie xx

    1. Hi, thanks for the comments. Yes, the most performing post is the best one to boost when using FB ads.

  25. Question- What social media platform do you think is most important for promotion?

    1. Personally Facebook is the best for promotion, 80% of my traffic come from FB, though it comes with a lot of work. You have to be very active in facebook groups to be able to drive any traffic to your blog. The other platform that I use is Pinterest, but am still working on it.

  26. This makes me feel better about the fact that I don’t post multiple times a day or even daily on my social media platforms. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi Rebecca, thanks for your comments.

  27. That’s a great set of tips for most new bloggers. I know I will definitely benefit from this.

    Shared the post on my FB page.

    1. Hi Mala, appreciated.

  28. A huge issue I had when I first started taking blogging seriously was trying to maintain every social media platform consistently and it was just too much. Now I’ve limited the social media platforms I use and have a better presence on all of them. There’s a few things you’ve listed that I am guilty of doing so I’ll need to rethink my social media strategy.

    1. Hi, thanks for visiting and for your comments on the post. Focusing on few that work well is the best strategy to use.

  29. mamaimperfection Avatar
    mamaimperfection

    Great tips! Thanks for sharing!

  30. This is really great! Thank you for your post! I could definitely use these tips and I didn’t even know about infolinks

    1. Hi, thanks for the comments. The more you network with other bloggers, the more tips and tricks you will learn from them.

  31. Thanks for sharing, I’ve and working on sharing other content other than just mine here lately and noticed that that has helped. Thank you for sharing these tips.

  32. This was so helpful! Thank you!

  33. Great tips thanks! I’m always struggling to keep up with a all the different platforms!

  34. Really helpful tips! I have learnt something

    1. Thanks for visiting and for the nice comments.

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