Today, there are so many social media sites, which all operate completely different from one another. For beginners, choosing the right one for your blog marketing can be very confusing. What’s even more confusing for beginners is figuring out how to use these various social media networks effectively.
Social Media Mistakes for Beginners to Avoid
There are some pretty common mistakes that social media beginners tend to make. Avoiding them from the beginning could help save you time, money and frustration in the long-run. Plus, your networking efforts will start to reap great results right from the start. Here are 10 common mistakes beginners should avoid when using social media as a marketing tool:
1) Using Facebook Only
When people think of social media, the first site that usually comes to mind is Facebook. Yet, this is not the only network that can effectively help market your site or blog. When it comes to business networking, you need to utilize other networks where your target audience can be found. Play around with Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube as well. That’s the best way to determine which platforms are best for your industry and reaching your target market.
2) Trying to Use Too Many Social Networks
Although you should concentrate on more than just Facebook, you don’t want to use too many social media sites at once. Why? Because it’s impossible to be engaging with too many audiences at ones. At some point, some of your networks will begin to suffer, along with the content you share, post and tweet. Determine which 1-2 others to concentrate on. Then, focus on quality, not quantity when posting.
3) Your Website and Blog Have No Social Media Icons
Your audience want a simple, on-click method for joining your social networks, as well as sharing your content. Add social media buttons/icons to give them this in very prominent, easy-to-spot areas on your website and blog.
4) You Only Share Your Own Content
Only savvy, established, famous bloggers can do this without bringing down their popularity. Beginners are in the process of building their online presence, trying to get noticed and increase social media network members. Sharing relevant content from other industry leaders is a very effective way to provide your target audience with even more valuable content and resources they can actually use.
5) You Simply Refuse to #FollowBack
If you never make an effort to follow people who are already following you, many will simply leave your network altogether. Although this is not a social rule set in stone, it is considered to be social media etiquette when trying to build your networks on social media sites.
6) You Confuse a Personal Profile with a Business Profile
Just about all of the most popular social networks have separate versions for business and personal profiles. Facebook and Google+ require you to have personal profiles before setting up your business profiles. Twitter and Pinterest business profiles can be established without personal profiles. No matter which platform you choose to use for social media marketing, make sure that you’re using a business profile, not your personal one.
7) You’re Don’t Engage Your Audience
Social media marketing is all about networking with your target audience, as well as engaging them. One of your goals should be to interact with your audience to create interest in your brand and solutions. This will encourage them to visit your blog for more valuable industry insight, follow it and share your content with their social media networks.
8) You Think All Your Fans and Followers See All Your Posts
Let’s break down how your post views actually work. Say your Facebook business page has 2,000 fans. You publish a new post on your business page. Only about 10%, or 200 of your fans will actually see your post in their individual timelines. All of the other popular social networks have very similar rules. Want to increase your posts’ reach? You’ll need to pay for advertising?
9) Your Posts Don’t Contain Interesting, Relevant Image
Images help to break up text, making your posts more pleasing to the eyes. According to social media marketing studies, these posts get more pins, G+s, likes, tweets and shares than those without images. So, include quality images in your social media posts when possible.Pictures also help get shares on Pinterest.
10) You Don’t Utilize #HashTags
Hashtags make it easier for people to follow social media discussions about particular topics. For example, let’s say you’re posting NBA Finals updates. Using the hashtag #NBAFinals in your posts will ensure that people searching for this info can find it quickly and easily. All they have to do is conduct social media searches using the hashtag, and related posts will automatically appear in results.
What do you think ? Add your comments below.
By Guest Author – This content was provided by Chad Goulde of The Blog Builders. Want to learn how to start a blog quickly and easily? Visit TheBlogBuilders.com for a complete walkthrough to starting your blog today.
