5 common social media mistakes (and how to avoid them)|Antivirus

                                    Social Media Mistakes 

Social media marketing is all the rage.

All businesses want to do it, big and small.

Understandably, the attention is on social networks . All in all, almost 3.5 billion people  are on social media in 2019.

1) you post too often

No, I was not wrong.

I wrote “too often”.

For a long time, social media professionals believed that by posting more, they would be more likely to appear in news feeds, especially on Facebook, and thus increase the reach of their posts.

But it got worse than better.

At least, that's what the Buffer company explains, which has multiplied by 3 the reach and engagement of their Facebook Page by publishing 5 times less.

This study is fairly well known and dates from 2017. The conclusions are still as relevant today ... 

In 2016, Buffer's community manager reports that he published up to 5 times a day on their Facebook page. At the end of 2016, they slowly reduced the frequency of their publications to publish only once a day.

2) you focus on the number of fans 

Are you racing the fans?

If so, you are wasting your time (and maybe even your money)! 

In 2019, it doesn't matter how many fans you have on Facebook or how many connections you have on LinkedIn.

What is important is the engagement rate.

It is much more interesting to have 1000 very engaged fans than 10,000 uninvolved fans.

Indeed, if your fans are not very engaged, the algorithms of social networks will quickly notice that no one is interested in your publications and they will disseminate them less in the news feed of your "fans".

The worst part is, the more unengaged fans you have, the harder it becomes to reach them! antivirus. 

It's paradoxical because Facebook pushes companies to “promote their Page”.

As you can see, this advertisement has only one goal: to make the user like the Page.

But, is it really a good idea?

Apparently yes, because you have one more fan on your Page and therefore more likely that your next posts will be seen!

In reality, it does not work as we hope. 

If you do fan acquisition this way, you will see your fan base increase, that's for sure. On the other hand, the reach of your publications (as a percentage of the number of fans) will decrease.

3) the content you post is of poor quality

It's almost obvious ... and yet, we still see poor quality content on social media. This will change quickly in the coming years.

There was a time when social media pushed all kinds of content, good or bad, so you could spend more time.

Today, users are more selective. They no longer want to waste time reading a shoddy article or watching a video that says the same thing as the neighbor's. 

In 2019, there is simply TOO MUCH content posted on these platforms and only the best content is more visible. 

What is good content?

It is content that inspires, educates or entertains. Such content in return collects reactions, comments and shares.

And bad content, what does it look like?

It is content that does not add value and / or is not relevant to the target audience. In other words, it's content that your audience hasn't deigned to like, comment on, or share.

Fortunately, you can easily identify quality content that you've already posted to your accounts to post new, similar content.

For example, by analyzing the statistics of your Facebook Page , you can very easily observe which content liked and which did not like your audience by analyzing the engagement rate.

This information offered by Facebook and Instagram is very valuable, but marketers tend to ignore it.

I think it is because this information is free. They are therefore given less credit.

If you don't often post content on social media, or if you still have few fans , my advice would be to look at the content posted by your competitors or use a tool like Buzzsumo to identify what is popular now on social networks.

For example, if I had to  post some really unique content on personal branding , be it a video or a series of Instagram Stories , I would first go to Buzzsumo to observe the 3 articles that received the most shares on the networks. social by doing a search like this:

I would then select the 3-4 most interesting points, add my personal touch, and post my short video on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

It's just a way of doing it.

You could also take a deep dive into your audience and the questions they ask.

Facebook and Instagram also provide you with basic statistics to know the profile of your fans or subscribers.

You may notice that you have more women following you than men.

It's a good start, but it's not always enough to know this.

Thanks to surveys, social communities or even comments left by Internet users, you will already be able to better understand what your target audience WANTS and what causes them problems.

Then your job is to produce content FOR this audience and not for yourself.

4) you don't adapt to changes in social networks

Social networks are changing all the time! As a result, you must constantly keep abreast of their development , the conclusions of new studies on the subject and the best practices to apply.

In other words, you need to challenge yourself every quarter at least on:

• The type of content  that is best to publish
• Frequency of publication
• Your editorial line
• And even the social networks on which you should be more or less present!  

  Let's take an example.

5 years ago, Facebook was very different from what it is now.

All you had to do was post links to your site, a few quotes, and post memes multiple times a day to be successful on the platform.

I'm extrapolating a bit, but it was clearly easier than now.

5) You publish the same content on all social platforms

Imagine a world in which you would just have to post something on Facebook and then copy and paste to post it to Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest as well.

Everything would go so fast to post on social networks. In addition, there are dozens of tools to schedule a post on multiple social networks at the same time.

You could do that… but that would be a big mistake!

Why ?

Because each social platform is different .

The “culture”, the habits, the content that is appreciated, the good practices… Everything is different from one social network to another.

The "language" spoken on each platform is very different and if you don't take this into account when you publish, you are missing out on opportunities to grow your community… and your income.

Let's take some examples so that you can better understand. 

On Instagram, people don't go there to read long texts. They are there to be inspired, to "travel" and discover the behind the scenes of your activity.