Social media marketing is something most brands feel they need to get involved in. However, getting things right on social media isn’t always as straightforward as some brands believe. This article explores some of the common mistakes that brands continue to make. Avoid these mistakes to ensure your brand gets things right.

1. Lack of a clear social media plan

It’s incredibly tempting to want to get stuck in all things related to social media and digital marketing. However, a significant amount of your success comes down to the quality of planning. Remember that formulating that plan may involve an element of trial and error in the early stages.

Once you have discovered what types of content are successful and which are not, you need to formulate a plan. Keep in mind that you do want to vary with what you post on your social media profiles but sticking to a general strategy is likely to increase your chances of success. Remember that you should repeat what works most of the time and experiment with new ideas some of the time.

2. Failure to accurately monitor social media performance

Of course, brands want to focus on the work of producing engaging social media content. However, as mentioned, part of the work in creating that content comes from an awareness of what works and what does not. To gain a clear understanding of this, it’s crucial to monitor various analytics to understand the engagement levels of your posts.

It’s necessary to use various tools to help you gain an understanding of how you are performing. Klout is an example of one of those tools that can give you an idea of your social media impact. Also, there are other things you should be monitoring such as Google Analytics. You should be observing and recording data and using the information to improve your social media output.

3. Not enough brand marketing

Anyone that has spent time using social media will know that it’s an extremely saturated marketplace. It’s crucial you do all you can to stand out. Of course, this is where brand marketing comes in. Avoid the mistake that many brands make by genuinely identifying your brand across social media.

Brand marketing includes a wide variety of things, such as your company logo, but more importantly, it’s all about brand voice. You want to identify a unique tone for your updates as well as ensure that everything you share is relevant to your brand. This relates back to the point on planning rather than using a haphazard approach.

4. Failure to understand their audience

Brands obviously want to use social media to their advantage. Though remember that many things need to be considered to get it right. Further to what has already been covered it’s essential to know your audience.

It’s crucial to do significant research into your audience and the users that engage with your posts the most. Once you have that information, you can tailor your posts to that core audience. To be successful on social media, you need to have a firm idea of who you are talking to.

Parting words

Social media marketing is something that most brands know they need to be involved in. Getting things right isn’t always easy, and there are various mistakes that brands can make. Remember some of those mistakes include lacking a clear plan, failure to monitor performance, lacking sufficient brand marketing or brand voice and inability to understand their audience.