Social media marketing can be incredibly effective to increase your visibility, grow your audience and promote your offers, but it’s also easy to make mistakes. 

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’re probably trying to figure out how to use social media to market your business. But if your strategy is wrong, you could be wasting time and money. Learn what to avoid so you can create a plan that works for you!

Mistake 1: NOT Defining Your Ideal Avatar

Marketing to everyone means you are marketing to no one. You need to know who your target audience is so you can create content (and offers) that speaks to them. You can’t be all things to all people, and when you try, your message gets lost and no one pays attention.

To define your ideal client avatar, ask yourself these questions:

• What are their demographics? (age, gender, location, etc)
• What are their interests?
• What are their pain points?
• What are their goals?

When you know who you’re talking to, you can create content that resonates and speaks directly to them. They will feel like you understand them and they will be more likely to do business with you.

This is a super-helpful strategy for all areas of your business, and your social media marketing is no exception. Another tip to help you really flesh out your avatar is to come up with a name, and then grab an image off Google Search (it’s okay…you won’t be sharing this with anyone outside your company).

Answer the questions above, and you’ve now got a complete profile of your perfect client and you can create content accordingly.

Mistake 2: Posting Where You Are Comfortable Instead of Where Your Audience Hangs Out

All too often I’ll ask someone what their favorite social platform is and the answer is quick but when I ask what platform/s their target audience is spending time on they don’t know. Don’t let that be you or you’ll be wasting time.

Facebook is still one of the most visited social media sites, according to Pew Research.

But is that where your audience actually hangs out?

Before you jump in and commit to a particular platform, it’s important to look at the demographics for each one. Here’s an amazing resource that will help you do just that.

For instance, did you know that…

• If you’re targeting females between the ages of 18 and 49, you’ll definitely want to consider Pinterest?
• Or if you’re targeting highly-educated professionals who make over $75K/year, LinkedIn is where it’s at?
• Or if you’re looking to reach teens or those in their 20’s, Instagram and Snapchat will be your best bet?

If you are on a platform that isn’t a good fit or if you haven’t posted in forever then get off of it since this impacts your online presence. I had a Twitter account since 2008 and stopped posting regularly seven years ago. Even though I had 4000+ followers, it didn’t make sense to keep the profile so I deleted it.

Each platform has a different strategy so once you know where you need to be then secure your profile (if you haven’t already), and customize your URL.

Remember – getting out of your comfort zone on social media is a must!

Mistake 3: Not Setting SMART Goals.

Do you have a specific goal or goals for your marketing strategy or are you just posting what comes to mind? Now that you know where your audience hangs out, it’s time to set some goals around what you want to accomplish with your marketing strategy.

Our minds are teleological which means we do better when we working towards some defined goals. Yet for some reason, with social media, too many entrepreneurs take the time to establish goals!

I recommend starting with big, wide-reaching goals first, and then breaking those bigger goals down into smaller pieces. You can then establish performance benchmarks and timelines for each piece.

• Your goals should be “SMART”: meaning, Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
• Goals could be: to increase your visibility, grow your audience, promote an offer, etc.

Here’s an example of a SMART goal for promoting an offer.

Many business owners say, “I want to use Facebook to grow my business”. But how do they know if they’re succeeding? How do they if what they’re doing is working…or not working?

Using SMART goals will remedy this: “I want to develop a Facebook strategy to drive 100 potential clients to my offer page in the next 90 days”. Notice I didn’t say sell 10 clients. The reason is when you focus on a specific activity then you have a better chance of achieving your revenue outcome.

Write down what you want to accomplish to help you focus on activities and a strategy to support that “SMART” goal…meaning far less wasted time, and far better results.

Mistake 4: Not Measuring Anything

This goes hand-in-hand with establishing measurable goals. Measuring does many things. First, it helps you track overall progress to your larger goals. But just as importantly, it tells you what’s working and what’s not. This will allow you to naturally make adjustments to fix your strategy…or free you up to confidently try something completely new.

An example…

1. You send your e-mail list a link to a new offer page. You track opens and clicks to see what works.
2. And you do a Facebook Live in your group letting your members know about the offer. The CTA is comment below and you also include a trackable link (different than the email link) so you know how many are clicking it.
3. You do an Instagram Reel and the CTA tells them to click the link in your bio which takes them to your Linktree account. You can still customize the specific links so now you know which platform gets the best results. 

The point is that measuring results will drive adjustments that lead to better results!

Mistake 5: Not Having a Content Strategy

Strategy + plan is a must! This includes the type of content you’re going to post to social media, how often you’ll post it, and what days and times you’ll post it. As a general rule, you should only post promotional material about 10% -20% of the time. This does two things:

1) Your content will appeal to those who are in the unaware stage which is the biggest group.

2) If you do more than that people will consider you a “spammer” or push marketer, and will disconnect.

So, what are you going to post the other 80–90% of the time? Post content that’s interesting, motivational, funny, useful or otherwise has VALUE to your community. Not sure where to start? These five things will help spark ideas:

• Your content pillars
• Your framework or method
• Target audience interests
• Pain points
• Their goals

Yes, creating a content strategy takes time but it helps you to be intentional with your message. The result, a solid social media strategy will save you time. You’ll know which platforms your audience is using. You’ll be providing the type of content they actually want to see. And most importantly, you’ll also know what’s working and what’s not…so you can do more of what works.

Still unsure where to start or what to do next with your strategy? I offer a handful of FREE content audits each month. Simply fill out the form using the link below.

Yes, I Want a FREE Content Audit!