Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Media Strategy
10 Biggest Social Media Content Mistakes (and how to fix them)
Feb 08 2022
I’ve been involved in social media marketing for 15+ years. While in a lot of ways social media hasn’t changed much, in other ways it has. The basics of social media are much the same.
Why social media is more challenging in 2022:
All of this points to the fact that you need to get your point across as quickly as possible. Audiences give you a few seconds to communicate.
That being said, you can focus on social media content optimization to optimize and improve your content to grow your results.
The benefits of creating better content:
So now that we’ve established why creating great content is so vital, let’s dive into the biggest mistakes and how to improve them.
So many businesses have vague strategies like “be seen as the experts in X” or “Sell more of product Y” but we need to get more focused in social media.
How to fix it: Start with a clear strategy. You don’t know if or how your content contributes to business or marketing goals if you don’t have a clearly articulated strategy. The best way to do this is via the marketing funnel and writing out a clear social media strategy.
This will give you clarity about what each post is really trying to do. A post focused on AWARENESS for an event will be constructed differently than one trying to CONVERT. Really focus on what each post is uniquely trying to do from both a business goal perspective and relative to the marketing funnel.
A lot of social media posts try to communicate many things. For example, an event post will include all the details when really it should just entice people to click. A product post will include all the features instead of focusing on a single benefit.
How to fix it: We need to get laser focused on the ONE SINGLE THING we are trying to communicate. For example,
In traditional writing we setup the story. “My kids come home from school and they are so hungry. I don’t know what to make them? Then I remember product X”. B2B businesses often write “We were so honored for Executive Y to speak at Event X hosted by Group Z”.
How to fix it: Get to the main point first. Start with the lead. “Yummy, yummy product X” or “What to know how Y is changing our industry”. Start with the main selling point or benefit for the audience.
Many posts are FULL of details. People don’t need to know everything in one post. Remember they spend 2 seconds on it. Your goal should be to communicate 1 thing. Eliminate not-needed details.
How to fix it: Having a clear strategy and main communication message will help (steps 1 &2). Keep in mind what you are REALLY trying to do. Do you want them to click? Make it sexy enough to get the click. Do you want to build brand equity? Make the message singular and clear.
We are STILL in an age where SO MUCH CONTENT is only focused on the business goals and not the benefit to the customer. Think about your customer first. What do they get out of reading this?
How to fix it: Ask yourself if your target audience would find this valuable. Would they want to read it? Do they get something from it? For product or marketing content often focusing on the BENEFIT is a way to help this.
Your content should be easily understood by your audience quickly.
How to fix it: Unless your target audience is also technical or in your industry avoid technical terms.
Focus is the name of the game in social. So many businesses write generic content that is trying to appeal to everything. This makes it uninteresting. You end up being boring. The best brands (beyond social media) are clearly focused on a specific target audience or buyer persona. They write with them in mind.
How to fix it: Get FOCUSED on your target audience and really write for them. This will allow you to have a clearer tone of voice and brand personality.
Visuals are the most important thing in your social content. With the rise of tools like Canva marketers can easily create great professional images. The problem? A lot of them are BORING and don’t capture attention.
How to fix it: Mix it up with user-generated content, actual product photos or real images. Aim for visual appeal with clear simple images that grab attention.
I recently saw a presentation by an executive at LinkedIn for a specific industry. He showed 10 posts and removed the company name. The businesses couldn’t even identify their content?!?!?!?! It all looked so similar that it could be from any business in their industry.
How to fix it: Build clear brand visuals and make a point to differentiate yourself visually from your competition. Think about Target vs. Walmart – each has a very unique look and feel, even though they sell the same products.
So much copy for social still contains so many words. If you have a longer story telling post you may require more words. But ask yourself: Does every word truly add value?
How to fix it: Write short copy (5 – 15 words) and look to eliminate anything that isn’t vital to your point. Forget the setup. Get to the point. Fast.
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