Trap #1 Getting distracted by what other people are doing on social media
If you are online to promote your business or services using social media, the last thing you want to be doing is wasting your precious time. And getting distracted by other people’s content can become an easy time suck, which will only result in the loss of valuable marketing time for you, and a lack of efficiency. This is one major reason business owners end up complaining about how “time consuming” social media is.
The fact is, social media doesn’t have to be time consuming. That’s why you need to focus your time on getting in, posting your content, and getting out. Avoid the distraction of what others are doing… and save that for another time.
Trap #2 Posting content without it being part of a greater strategy
If you are posting on social media, there needs to be a reason. You need to have some result or outcome in mind for each piece of content you are posting. Otherwise, there is really no point to investing your time and energy in creating the content in the first place.
It doesn’t need to be a promotional sales pitch every time you post, but you should have some reason for what you are doing. Reasons like “developing engagement” or “getting clicks to your website” are just a couple of examples.
Trap #3 Forgetting to think about your audience
We all like to talk about ourselves, our businesses, our products, and our services. But very often, we forget about the people we are talking to. What’s important to them? How do the things we do benefit them?
Forgetting to think about your audience and their needs, wants, and desires can be a huge trap, and one that will quickly result in people ceasing to consume your content. Don’t fall into this trap, or you will soon have little or no audience there to consume what you are sharing.
What are you after?
These are just three of the many possible traps businesses tend to fall into when using social media. They are a result of not having a real strategy in place for overall marketing efforts, or, at least, not understanding how to leverage social media effectively as part of that strategy.
For your business to succeed with social media (and not fall into these traps), you simply need to think about what you are intending to gain from online interactions with prospects and customers. Then you just put the right pieces in the right order to make your readers want to engage with you and your business. It’s easily accomplished if you understand your audience, and create consistency and discipline with your social content.