Today’s consumers are constantly on social media, and brands have taken notice of this huge opportunity by ramping up their social media marketing efforts. But to get the most out of your social media marketing strategy, you need to know what not to do on social media. Here are a few pitfalls that may turn your audience off from engaging with your brand – and what you can do to avoid them.

Why social media?

Social media has taken over traditional media. You can read about it in any major news publication, see it on any large news network and watch people tweeting about their lives on most major TV shows. Social media is a great place for businesses to reach out and engage with their customers, but if you’re not using it correctly you might as well be throwing away money. Making social media work for you is not as easy as posting once or twice a day, you need a plan and a strategy that is customized for your business goals. In order to fully understand how social works and why some strategies work better than others, let’s look at some basics behind social strategy so we can understand what social strategists are trying to accomplish when they set up their campaigns.

The key metrics for success

By focusing on only a few metrics you can quickly understand how social is impacting your business. For example, if you’re using Instagram and want to measure engagement, tracking likes and comments are all you need. If you’re looking at Facebook, likes and shares should be what you’re looking for. If Twitter is where you’re at then retweets and favorites are key metrics. No matter what platform you’re using, these analytics will give you an idea of how effective it’s been for driving conversions. By looking at conversion metrics like visitors vs leads or visitors vs email subscribers, we can start to see which platforms are working best for us right now.

Which platform?

Which platform should you focus on for social media? That’s tough. It depends on your goals and whether or not there’s a natural fit between that network and what you want to accomplish. A good first step is asking yourself if social media is an important part of what you do, who you are and where you want to go. If it isn’t, then why invest time in it? If it is important, then consider what your target market is using most frequently and give those platforms some serious thought. Doing so will save time in both development and engagement.

What should you say?

Social media is an excellent way to communicate with followers and reach out to new customers. You can find social influencers that may be interested in promoting your product by using great coupons, but you need a well-thought-out strategy before you begin. Here are a few tips for using social media effectively.

Don’t feel like an expert? Start with what you know

If you don’t have a direct experience with social media marketing, talk about something that you have direct experience with: maybe you own a gym and are looking at promoting your business on Twitter. Or, maybe you are an expert in customer service; how could social media be used as a way to better respond to customer needs? Regardless of what industry you’re in or what experiences you’ve had, there are ways for businesses like yours to leverage social media for success.

Beginner mistakes and how to avoid them

There are a number of social media mistakes that even novice marketers can make. Luckily, many of these mistakes are easy to avoid, and learning about them now will help you succeed later. Here are four common beginner social media mistakes and how you can avoid them

How many hours per day should you be on social?

You’ve probably heard that you should be on social media all day long, but is that really true? In short, no. You don’t have to be on social all day long to see results; when we share content across channels throughout the day, we can spread our reach much further than if we just blast out one post at 10:00 am and leave it at that.

Keeping up with trends – don’t fall behind!

As social media platforms are constantly evolving, staying up-to-date on what’s in and what is not can be confusing. As with most things in life, a little patience can go a long way; even if you don’t have time for extensive research and development, there are plenty of ways to stay ahead of the curve! We’ve listed some of our top tips for keeping up with trends below

Creating great content

The first step in any successful social media strategy is creating great content. The best way to do that is by listening to what your customers and followers have to say. Create a customer service Twitter account or Facebook page, and ask for feedback on how you can improve your products or services. In addition, Hashtags and keywords can help to make your content more discoverable on social media. Use relevant hashtags and keywords in your posts to help them reach a wider audience.