{"id":8528,"date":"2018-04-13T13:42:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T08:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rankwatch.com\/blog\/?p=8528"},"modified":"2023-12-11T17:12:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T11:42:04","slug":"6-most-common-mistakes-people-make-on-social-media-and-how-to-avoid-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rankwatch.com\/blog\/6-most-common-mistakes-people-make-on-social-media-and-how-to-avoid-them\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Most Common Mistakes People Make on Social Media (and how to Avoid Them)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mistakes<\/a><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>2018 CMO survey<\/span><\/a>, companies are spending 12% of their marketing budget on social media. It is predicted that the <\/span>social media\u2019s marketing<\/span><\/a> budget share will hit 20.5% in the next five years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also another interesting number in the report: only 23.3% of marketers who took the survey can prove the impact of social media quantitatively. The rest are either feeling a qualitative impact or are unable to show the impact yet. <\/span><\/p>\n

While I\u2019m not in the business of lamenting and making accusations, as someone who is working with businesses to improve their content strategy, I see some mistakes people keep making on social media. <\/span><\/p>\n

These mistakes keep businesses from seeing positive results from their social media marketing and convinces them that social media is not a good marketing channel. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mistake #1 – They don’t know the buying journey of their customers<\/h2>\n

First things first, if you don\u2019t know how your customers move from getting to know you to buy from you, you won\u2019t be successful on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Typically, it\u2019s unreasonable to think that once people saw your post on social media, they\u2019re immediately going to do a purchase. There is a distance between the awareness phase and the purchase phase, and you need to identify how to deal with that distance.<\/p>\n

What you Should do:<\/h3>\n

In order to predict and act on your customers\u2019 <\/span>buying journey<\/span><\/a>, you need to define your customer persona. For doing this, you need to go further than defining demographic features such as age, gender, work, etc. You need to have a good understanding of their behavioral features as well. Their lifestyle, habits, interests, pain points, micro-moments, etc. are more important than you could guess. <\/span><\/p>\n

The kind of content you produce (textual v.s visual, emotional v.s analytical, etc.), the influencers you reach out to, or on which publications or channels you should get featured, depend a great deal on your audience\u2019s preferences. <\/span><\/p>\n

In order to predict your customers\u2019 journey, you need to ask the following questions: <\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What are the most common concerns of my customers before buying from me?<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. How will they find the answers to their questions and concerns? <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Are they analytical or rather emotional and intuitive? <\/span>Personality types<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>make a huge difference in people\u2019s decision making. <\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Do they tend to do research on mobile devices or PC? <\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Where are the places that my potential customers tend to do their research and find their answers? Is it Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or some influential blogger or influencer?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The best way to find answers to these questions is asking your customers. Using tools such as Google Forms<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>SurveyMonkey<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>you can easily make beautiful surveys, send them to your email list or social media followers, and get insights from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Even if you don\u2019t have an audience, you can use <\/span>SurveyMonkey\u2019s Audience<\/span><\/a> feature to reach millions of qualified respondents from your market and know their insights. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Bonus Point:<\/h3>\n

    Providing an incentive for your audience to take the survey is a great way to increase your response rate. <\/span>Hootsuite\u2019s free plan<\/span><\/a> allows you to start sweepstake campaigns in which a prize is given to a lucky respondent. Here\u2019s the video they provide to explain their sweepstake campaigns. <\/span><\/p>\n