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. Mosaics Lab Avatar
    Mosaics Lab

    Great great post, love it! I agree with all your insights especially in regards to sharing the same content across different channels, that is a big no no for us.

    Chad
    http://www.mosaicslab.com

    1. Hi Chad, thanks for visiting.

  2. Create. Play. Travel. Avatar
    Create. Play. Travel.

    These are great tips. I’ve noticed YouTube links don’t get as much traction on Facebook. I mostly focus on Instagram for daily posts.

    1. Yes put more focus where you get more results.

  3. I LOVE that you opened with the mistake of sharing only your own content. You have to mix it up and encourage interaction. Unfortunately, I still see so many people making this error.

    1. Hi Stacie, true, when you focus only on sharing your content, it’s difficulty attracting other people from other niches.

  4. These are all such great tips! I keep telling my clients these same things all the time.

    1. Hey Alison, glad you found this a helpful read!

  5. These are great tips, and pictures really do make posts stand out more than just words! #GlobalBlogging

    1. Hi Heather, true! I appreciate your visit.

  6. Very helpful article, thanks for sharing

  7. Great article. I find boosting Facebook posts is quite useless and money wasting from personal experience, but the other points are spot on!

    1. Hi, Boosting works well if you want to increase your post reach but I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to drive more traffic to your blog.

  8. notquitesupermommn Avatar
    notquitesupermommn

    Trying to understand all the various social media channels can be overwhelming. I appreciate your straight to the point, helpful advice.

    1. Thanks for the feedback. Welcome.

  9. I think I am making all of these mistakes, thank you for pointing them out! Only half kidding. Great information, as usual. I really learn alot from all of your posts and look forward to reading them.

    1. Hi Jenny, I really appreciate your feedback. As always, you are welcomed.

  10. This is such an eye opener for me. I’ve seen my mistakes and I’ll work on them. Thanks!

    1. Hi Noor, thanks for the feedback. Welcome.

  11. Thank you, I find it all time consuming, being creative and imaginative is key, need to spend time on this rather then posting, posting 🙂

    1. Sure! thanks for reading.

  12. I appreciated the blogging tips. The one that stands out to me the most is boosting the FB posts with engagement. I had to hear that one from a competitor, when my own hired SEO company never made that kind of recommendation.

    1. Hi Ryan, thanks for your comments. Boosting the posts with the most engagements brings in the most results than just boosting any posts, that is why you have to use insights statistics well when selecting posts to boost on Facebook.

    1. Hi Brenda, thanks for reading!

  13. […] You can also read: 9 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes. […]

  14. […] You can also read: Social Media Mistakes […]

  15. Good information! Thank you!

    1. Hi Elizabeth, I appreciate your visit.

  16. This was very informative. I need to start changing the ways in which I move on social media. Thanks.

    1. Hi Lou, glad to know that you’ve picked some learning points from the post. Thanks.

  17. Thanks so much for these tips! I’ll make sure to apply them! I’ve been blogging for about 6 months now and never stop learning about what works best with each social media channel. They’re all so different!

    1. Hi Erika, am glad this post was helpful to your online work. Thanks for visiting.

  18. Thank you for the useful tips. I’ll have to try the video tip.

    1. Hi Jada, am glad to see that you’ve picked some tips for implementation from this post. I appreciate your visit and feedback.

  19. Short, to the point, yet highly valuable! I loved reading this post. Thanks for the great advice!

    1. Thanks very much for visiting and nice feedback.

  20. Love the last piece of advice. It’s all about focus 🙂 Great article.

    1. Hi, thanks very much for visiting. Lets keep the focus in this new year!

  21. I adore Facebook groups. I am a member of quite a few because people keep dropping me into them. However, there are some that are really wonderful and supportive.

    1. Dr. Elise, thanks for visiting. I believe if you select Facebook groups especially those that are suited to your niche, and be active, then you stand a high chance of driving people to your blog. I personally drive more than 70% of my traffic from Facebook groups, and have come to appreciate their importance when building an online community for a blog.

  22. Thank you for this helpful information! I can use all the helpful information I can get regarding to social media! Thank you!

  23. Very useful advice, thank you. I have pinned and shared. I use Crowdfire and Tailwind to help with scheduling as you can tailor content accordingly as you suggest.

    1. Hi Sarah, Thanks for visiting, and taking time to make comments.

  24. I never understood how people can do all the social media platforms… it’s so exhausting!

    1. I think in most cases is due to lack of plan and strategy hence wasting so much time and energy on networks that don’t bring in most results otherwise thanks for visiting.

    2. I agree. I block a certain amount per day and also now concentrate on one platform each month on a rotating monthly basis. I still will engage in the others, but main focus and effort on that months.

      1. When you plan and strategize, you get better results and you can be able to monitor your performance.

  25. I LOVE reading these kind of posts. Well done. Thanks for the good read!

  26. Good advice, especially about the square videos. With Facebook’s upcoming changes, video is going to be more important than ever.

    1. Hi Leslie, thanks for dropping by, Videos provide more engagements and as move to the future, it will be one of the preferred formats of passing down a message to your audience

  27. Congratulations John. You won the Inspire Me Monday Linky Party two weeks in a row! You’ll be featured on my site again this Monday.
    Janice

    1. Thanks again Janice for the win. Looking forward to this!!

  28. very valuable tips. someone suggested to post old post links in social media. Is that good? You mean only career related post links is good for linkedin and no hashtags for fb?

    1. It depends, I usually post old posts once in a while, this brings in additional traffic. Provided the content is of high quality, you can post over and over again. With regard LinkedIn, you will get more engagements on your posts if you post career related posts there, as compared to just any other topic. Find what works well for each network and try to leverage on it.

  29. People ask me for blog advice all the time – specifically – “how can I grow my traffic?”… And my answer is: DO THE WORK – IE: VISIT OTHER PEOPLE’S BLOGS and leave meaningful comments and engage with them! If you want people to visit you, you have to visit them!

    1. Hi, you hit the nail on the head! Blogging is not all about creating content and leaving it there, you need to promote it to your desired audience. Successful bloggers will tell you that they spend more time promoting than writing.

  30. Thanks so much for this. Sometimes I’m a victim of these mistakes

    1. Becoming a successful blogger takes time, so making mistakes is just part of the learning curve, otherwise thanks for dropping by.

  31. Enjoying this very much very useful thank you so much

  32. John – These are great tips for people trying to utilize social media to advance a blog or business. You included more depth and varied your suggestions so I was able to really gain insights from your post.

    1. Appreciated. Am glad that this has given you some useful tips.

  33. Su (ethannevelyn.com) Avatar
    Su (ethannevelyn.com)

    I have completely made these mistakes before too, thank you for sharing though, it’s a good reminder of what we all need to do.

    1. Hi, thanks for the comments.

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