How not to screw up your social media

Ever since the dawn of 2019, you’ve been striving to become the social media marketing (SMM) superstar. And you’ve done everything you think is enough to achieve that end – you’ve read up on all the latest marketing trends; you’ve tried to revamp and rethink your social media efforts, and you’ve also consistently tried to improve and boost your SMM campaigns. But alas! All your efforts still fail to produce optimum results!

Instead of panicking, stop for a minute and try to think to yourself – “Why are my efforts failing? Is there something I’m missing?”

Well, you definitely are my friend! In trying to get everything right, you’re probably missing out on the subtle signs that show that you might be overdoing it or doing it all wrong!

But, fret not, for I’m here to teach you how to not mess up your social media marketing game!

Here are tips that you should strictly follow if you wish to ace the SMM game.

1. Always have a clear goal in mind for your social media campaigns.

Just as every well-designed plan has a direction, your social media campaigns also need a direction, that is, a well-defined goal. While planning an SM campaign, you need to set specific targets, such as the number of conversions you’re hoping to generate, the amount of revenue you’re seeking to generate, the audience you wish to target, and so on. Setting a rough idea about these things allows you to align your resources and efforts accordingly and monitor if your estimated result meets the actual results.

If you do not set clear goals for your campaigns, you’ll have nothing to look up to and compare and the result? Everything will be in a disarray!

You certainly do not want that, do you?

2. Never go overboard with your posts!

Although you may have heard that “content is king,” it does not imply that you’ve to make your social media pages and handles look like the content fairy threw up on it! (I strongly suggest you don’t picture it). This is where many budding marketers go wrong. Just because they’ve read that good content is the way to get popular with the online audience, they think they can just keep posting content (be it visual or textual) every ten minutes or so!

That’s a strict no-no, folks!

Instead of overcrowding and stuffing your SM feed with useless content (just because the trend says so), aim for posting quality content for your target audience. Remember, it’s about quality and not quantity. Give your viewers/readers something useful and interesting to see and read so that when they come across something on your SM feed, they actually stop to read and think.

3. Do not make it all about YOU!

Yes, it’s great that you’re promoting your brand, but it’s never okay to make your SMM campaigns all about you. Those days are long gone, pals! Today, it’s about the consumer. So, while you promote your products/services, you’ve to get into the mindset of the consumer – what will they like? What will appeal to them?

This is where you’ve to get creative. Every time you launch a campaign, do a little background research on the demographics, tastes and preferences patterns, etc., of your target audience. You’ve to plan and build your SM campaigns in a way that while it appeals to your target audience, it also subtly gets across your message and promotes your brand.

4. Never let the trolls get to you.

When you step into the world of social media, you have to accept one unsavory truth – trolls.

Just as social media is a place to connect with like-minded people and people who’ll appreciate your efforts, it is also the place where the Internet trolls go wild. That’s just the way it is. Everything has a good and bad side, and so you’ve to see trolls as the ‘bad’ side of social media. And if someone says that you can’t do anything about these trolls, that’s not completely true – you can always ignore them! That’s what a wise marketer would do.

Never, ever use your SM platform to get even with the trolls! If you think that exercising your right to free speech and expression will work here, you couldn’t be more mistaken. It will lead to nothing constructive, but it’ll definitely help tarnish your reputation on social media.

So, ignore them, okay?

5. Don’t over-prune your comment section.

As we said, there’ll always be negative reviews along with constructive reviews in your comments section, and while it’s okay to remove a few select negative comments (the ones that are excessively harsh or untrue), it’s so not okay to go overboard with it. If you remove all the negative comments from your comments section, it will send the wrong message to people – you will portray the false image that your brand is untarnished when it’s clearly not.

So, maybe leave at least some negative comments right where they are.

Instead, you can try to reply to such negative comments with assurances that you’re trying to do better. This will make you all the more credible to your target audience.

6. Always use the right tools to measure and track your online engagement.

There are many tools available in the market to help you measure and track your social media progress and metrics, and they are there for a reason – for you to use and enhance your SMM performance.

And the best part? For all your needs, there’s a tool available! Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, IFTTT, BuzzSumo, Feedly, Oktopost, Bitly , are a few popular tools that you can use to amp your SMM game.

7. Use your influencers wisely.

There’s a reason why you reach out to social media influencers so that they can influence your followers positively. But sometimes this can go terribly wrong. For instance, on November 2012, Oprah Winfrey was supposed to promote Microsoft’s Surface (a mobile device).

Source

Now, you ask what could’ve gone wrong here?

Thing is, Oprah did promote Surface in a tweet, but she did that through her iPad. See the irony?

This kind of error on the influencer’s part could have a bad impact on your followers. So, always ensure that your influencers get it right.

8. Create lasting experiences for your target audience.

Whatever you decide to project or sell on social media, don’t just sell it but create an experience out of it. This includes all your ad and promotional campaigns – make them such that they have a lasting impact on your viewers. , that it lingers in their minds.  This way you remain in their minds long after they’ve seen your campaigns.

You can create such campaigns that involve your audience and encourages them to interact with your brand. For instance, you can ask your audience to give an interesting caption for your SM story or ask them what they would like to see next. This way, you always keep them in the loop and with time, it helps develop strong brand-consumer relationships.

Every successful brand swears by these eight simple social media marketing tricks. Now it’s your turn to make it right!

Mayank Gulati

Partner, ContentNinja

Unhappy with the concept of 5 working days a week, Mayank Gulati started his own Marketing Communications firm, ContentNinja. He now works 7 days a week with clients like Oxford Press, Times Internet, Hostgator, and more.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gulatimayank/

Twitter: Personal account is inactive. Company account: https://twitter.com/_contentninja