When using a social media (for any type of blog or website promotion), there are social media mistakes that you can make and mistakes that you SHOULDN’T make. Call them rules if you want, but believe it or not, you can actually hurt yourself if you do this incorrectly.
Social Media Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make
You have a blog for your business to show that you’re an authority in your industry… an expert. But if you are blogging just to blog (and add content to your website) you’re not adding any true value for your readers. You need to add value every time you start to type.
But if you have value to offer, why not reach as many people as possible to show them that you do have something to say. Hashtags, frequency of posts, platform you are posting on, and adding images are just a few things you need to think about.
Hashtags in Social Media – Too Many?
Did you know that Tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement than tweets without (BufferApp)?
Hashtags are the # sign. They precede a keyword and let people know what your update is about. So for instance, if we were posting a promo for this article, we might do something like this: #SocialMedia.
But do you use hashtags on all social media platforms? Absolutely not. And how many do you use? A very common social media mistake is putting too many hashtags in posts.
Twitter is the original platform for hashtags and continue to use them to this day. However, you can use them on Google+ as well. To determine what hashtag I’m going to use, I will go to Twitter and in the search box I will type # and enter a term that I may be writing about. Social Media, blogging, or blogtips may all be relevant. Find a hashtag that populates as you type as they are typically the most popular.
I typically will get a follower or two within just a few minutes of posting (with a hashtag) because people who are interested in what I’m writing about may like my content and want to see more of what I have in the future.
Stats show that you should not add more than 2 hashtags per tweet. Besides, you only have 140 characters, are you just going to put a bunch of hashtags? Then you’re not going to have any room to say anything meaningful. Besides, nobody wants to see a tweet of just hashtags. For good practice, I would try to stick with just 1 hashtag per tweet.
Facebook does have hashtags, but stats show that posts WITHOUT a hashtag fare better than those with a hashtag (BufferApp).
Google+ actually populates popular hashtags based on your content, so they take the work out of it for you. However, you should still make sure they’re relevant and that there’s not too many of them.
Frequency of Social Media Posts – Too Many?
But how often do I make a post?
Think about this. You decide to follow your uncle’s plumbing business on Facebook. He’s a nice guy and a really hard worker and besides that, he’s family. You also want to show him support for his business.
Now, every time you log into your Facebook account you see your uncles plumbing business updates. He’s posting about his philosophy on plumbing, a new plunger that he has, and a testimonial about a toilet he fixed for a little old woman. And we are talking about EVERY DAY. And sometimes, we’re talking about multiple times a day. Are you really that interested in his company posts?
So guess what? You unfollow him.
Now you still love your uncle, however every time you think of his business, you automatically have a negative taste in your mouth. This happens at a subconscious level. Of course you don’t hate his company, but the next time you think of that company, the first thing you think about is how much that company use to post things that you didn’t care about and how irritated it made you.
Do you really want the to cause that kind of thought process in people that might need a plumber? You want them to think of you if you need a plumber… not that they were irritated because of you.
Therefore, frequency of posts is important and is a VERY common mistake made in social media. It also varies from platform to platform.
On Twitter you can get away with more than you can on other platforms before you start to lose followers. A lot of time you will see multiple posts to accounts in the same day. Part of the reason for this is because there is a 140 character limit in your tweets. What if you have more to say than 140 characters.
On Facebook, you don’t have nearly as much leeway. Think about our above example about the plumber. Facebook has become a communication tool and a way to keep in touch for a lot of people. If you start to mess with their communication and clog it up with all of your posts about plumbing…. guess what? They unlike you and not you’ve lost the opportunity to market to that person at all.
On Facebook it also varies how much you can post depending on your industry. It helps us know when to post and where to post.
Google+ is still popular, but it’s not like Facebook yet. Therefore, you can get away with posting quite a bit. Still, I would not do it multiple times a day. I would stick to it every two or three days.
Our Social Media Mistake… Ooops!
Now, I’m a bit afraid to admit this, but I’ve made a mistake over the last week. I have been posting to all 4 of my accounts EVERY DAY. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. And I don’t even have an excuse but to say… I completely forgot. Yes, marketers do sometimes forget all of these rules to.
I just used my Hootsuite account and posted. I just assumed that everyone would WANT to hear from me everyday. Bad assumption. Not everyone cares that much about what I have to say to want to hear from me everyday (with the exception of my wife and kids…. and I’m still pretty sure that is not an everyday thing either). I haven’t done a new social media calendar for 2015 and it came back to bite me.
Therefore, I will still continue to post to the blog everyday, I will update Twitter every day, but then I will update Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn only a couple of times a week.
Are there any Social Media mistakes that we missed? If so, leave them in the comments below.
Also, if you want to follow us on “The 99 Challenge” – Our blogging challenge to make 99 posts in 99 days and show the power of building your business through a blog, click the Join Today button below. We will send out an email once a week with a rundown of the posts we made and then you can pick and choose.