In an online world full of bots, bought followers and often just plain unoriginality, it can be really difficult to get ahead of the social media game. It’s one of those things that will probably always be a labyrinth of strategy versus trial and error.
So, here are a few common social media mistakes that you might not know you were making.
Neglecting hashtags
Ah, hashtags. They almost need a whole blog post to themselves. Here are some common faux pas that people often make when it comes to hashtagging (or not hashtagging in some cases) on Instagram:
- Adding hashtags to a post a while after publishing. When you search a hashtag, the photos appear in order of how recently they were posted – not how recently the hashtag was added to the post. So, if you upload a photo and decide later on that you’re going to add hashtags, just be aware that adding them later on will mean that much fewer people will see your post. In other words – add your hashtags whilst you’re uploading.
- Not hashtagging at all. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags to be added to a post at a time. So, that’s 30 different opportunities you have for your post to be seen by other users. Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of that?
- Using the exact same hashtags every time. It’s time to stop copy and pasting the exact same hashtags into the caption of every post. Mixing them up will allow you to reach different people all the time and will stop you from getting shadowbanned in the long run.
Not identifying your target audience
How are you supposed to create a social media strategy if you don’t even know who you want to or who you should be targeting?
Whether you’re selling vintage swing dresses or driving traffic to your fan fiction blog, you’re always going to have certain groups of people that you need to be targeting. Once you’ve identified who those groups are, you need to start gearing your content towards them. If your content and tone of voice are irrelevant to your target audience then they’re never going to engage with you.
Being unresponsive
If you’re receiving comments, reviews and messages but you’re taking ages to get back to them or, even worse, not getting back to them at all then you’re only setting yourself up to fail. What’s the point in creating social media profiles for you brand if you’re not going to respond to your customers and potential customers? Giving people a chance to put a voice to a brand will build you a good rep in the long run.
People want to be heard so just make sure you’re listening to them.
Not keeping tracking of your progress
Analytics will tell you almost everything you need to know about whether or not you’re doing a good job. Whatever your business goals are, whether they be to increase brand awareness, send more traffic to your website or to sell your product/service, you need to work out how social media is going to help you get there.
If you’re not progressing as quickly as you thought you would or you’re not hitting your targets then your content or your strategy may need some adjusting. How are you going to know whether or not you’re hitting your goals if you’re not keeping tracking of them? If you’re new to analytics then it might be worth checking out the Insights section on the Instagram app. You can see your top posts in categories such as engagement, likes, profile visits and impressions.
Being afraid to experiment with different types of content
Photos. Blog posts. Boomerangs. Podcasts. Stop motions. Infographics. Videos. Polls. Limiting the content that you’re uploading to your social media profiles will only limit the impact that you have with your audience. Posting a healthy mix of professional, fun, informative and relatable pieces of content will keep your audience engaged. When they’re engaged, they’re likely to keep coming back for more.
Leaving your personality offline
There’s a time and a place to be sales-focused but that time isn’t ALWAYS. If every single post and story you’re publishing is “buy this”, “go here” or “do that” then people are eventually going to tire of your brand. Nobody wants to follow, engage or listen to a boring brand. Make sure that your feed contains a variety of informative and relatable content.
As always, thank you for reading!
Ways you can reach me:
- Email: courteneynoonan@hotmail.co.uk
- Twitter: @courteneyjn
- Instagram: @courteneynoonan
Bye for now,
Courteney x
courteneynoonan.co.uk 
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