Common Mistakes Made on Social Media by Small Business Owners

Mika

VIP Contributor
When businesses make mistakes on social media, they don’t generate traffic, leads, and sales. When there is no traffic, leads, and sales from your social media activity, the whole point of social media marketing becomes a futile attempt.

What do you think are the mistakes made by small business owners?

One of the biggest mistakes is related to content visibility. They post on social media but the content never reaches the potential customers. This can be rectified by building niche based audience, using the appropriate hashtags, and targeting your content to the proper demography

Another mistake is related to content quality. A lot of business owners are confused about what kind of content to share. They publish selfish content. Selfish content means content about “me.”If you talk only about yourself, like what you have done, what you are offering, what your product and services can do, etc. people will never check your content. Remove “I” from your marketing and you will see what a big difference it makes.
 
There's no question that social media is a powerful tool for small businesses. It can help you connect with customers, promote your products and services, and build brand awareness.

But social media can also be a minefield, and small business owners often make mistakes that can damage their business. Here are three common mistakes made on social media, and how to avoid them.

1. Not Having a Strategy

Many small business owners dive into social media without any sort of plan or strategy. They post randomly, without any real purpose or direction.

But if you want to use social media effectively, you need to have a strategy. Decide what goals you want to achieve, and then create content and campaigns that will help you reach those goals. Without a strategy, you're just wasting time and resources.

2. Posting Too Much

It's important to keep your social media accounts updated, but posting too much can be just as detrimental as posting too little. If you're constantly bombarding your followers with content, they're going to get annoyed and tune you out.

Post regularly, but don't overdo it. A few times a day is usually enough, unless you're running a big promotion or campaign.

3. Posting Inappropriate Content

Before you hit that "post" button, ask yourself if the content you're sharing is appropriate for your business. If you wouldn't say it or show it in person, don't post it online.

Remember that social media is a public platform, and anything you post can be seen by anyone. Think before you post, and avoid sharing anything that could damage your business.
 

sincerem

VIP Contributor
You're correct with the points you stated, most business owners who tries to build social media presence for their businesses are the major issue why their business failed to hit the stride they wanted. 'Self Promotion of their business products is one of the negative reasons why their businesses didn't live to experience success. If your business is a game changer, problem solver, definitely, people will see it and like it. Adding a hashtag is one of the essential ways to drag the targeted audience, they'll come to know what our business is based on. Many business owners who promote businesses on social media fails to handle this kind of scenario and they regret it at last, because it wouldn't locate the targeted audience since they wouldn't find your content when they search for related keywords.
 

Jasmine

VIP Contributor
Social media marketing will convert only when you have a huge audience. Social media will convert only off the content you are posting matches with the interest of your audience. Therefore, before you can start marketing on social media, you will have to focus on building audience in your niche. If you have time and if you want to grow organically, you can continue to post high quality content and grow your audience slowly. However, if you are in a bit of hurry, you can advertise your page or your post, or your product/service through paid ads. Just because you are running ads does not mean you will have high conversion. Conversion will depend on your target audience and the ad quality. You will have to put yourself in your customers’ hat and think why would you buy that product or follow that page? Just like your page content, your ad content should also offer value to your customers.
 

Shaf

Verified member
When I was trying to advertise and grow a following on social media, Facebook precisely, I had to do a lot of learning about what works and what is wrong.

One mistake people make is that they try to sell first without adding value to others. People are on social media to relax and have fun. If all you do is tell them to buy, buy, buy, that's exactly what they won't do. But everyone has problems, and if you can show them that you care enough to help them understand and solve it.

Another is using complex lingo. No one cares about big fancy words when all they want is to relax. Use simple day to day language here.

Targeting is also important. You need to either draw audiences to a place you can address them, or go to places and groups they can be found. This is way easier said than done from my experience.
 

Rubz

Active member
You are absolutely correct. A lot of people have given up advertising on social media and they don't believe one can actually advertise on social media platforms. This is because, they make some common mistakes and they are not advertising the right way they should. A very common mistake most business owners make when advertising on social media platform, is by talking about a product or service without posting pictures of the goods or service they render. This is what is called "audio goods and services" in my country. I really dislike this kind of advertising. I really don't know how a potential buyer is meant to patronize a business owner without knowing what the product looks like. Another mistake most business owner makes when advertising a product on social media platform is not attaching the price of a product to the post made about a product.
 

Rendered

New member
There's no question that social media is a powerful tool for small businesses. It can help you connect with customers, promote your products and services, and build brand awareness.

But social media can also be a minefield, and small business owners often make mistakes that can damage their business. Here are three common mistakes made on social media, and how to avoid them.

1. Not Having a Strategy

Many small business owners dive into social media without any sort of plan or strategy. They post randomly, without any real purpose or direction.

But if you want to use social media effectively, you need to have a strategy. Decide what goals you want to achieve, and then create content and campaigns that will help you reach those goals. Without a strategy, you're just wasting time and resources.

2. Posting Too Much

It's important to keep your social media accounts updated, but posting too much can be just as detrimental as posting too little. If you're constantly bombarding your followers with content, they're going to get annoyed and tune you out.

Post regularly, but don't overdo it. A few times a day is usually enough, unless you're running a big promotion or campaign.

3. Posting Inappropriate Content

Before you hit that "post" button, ask yourself if the content you're sharing is appropriate for your business. If you wouldn't say it or show it in person, don't post it online.

Remember that social media is a public platform, and anything you post can be seen by anyone. Think before you post, and avoid sharing anything that could damage your business.
Lot of good info. here thanks for sharing. I never really thought about posting too much could hurt more than it helps but now it makes sense
 

Rendered

New member
When I was trying to advertise and grow a following on social media, Facebook precisely, I had to do a lot of learning about what works and what is wrong.

One mistake people make is that they try to sell first without adding value to others. People are on social media to relax and have fun. If all you do is tell them to buy, buy, buy, that's exactly what they won't do. But everyone has problems, and if you can show them that you care enough to help them understand and solve it.

Another is using complex lingo. No one cares about big fancy words when all they want is to relax. Use simple day to day language here.

Targeting is also important. You need to either draw audiences to a place you can address them, or go to places and groups they can be found. This is way easier said than done from my experience.
One of the oldest sayings is to keep it simple, Make sure everything is spelled right and keep it neat. Like you said no need for big long words that a lot of people do not know what they mean or have to take the time to go look them up
 
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