5 Mistakes You’re Making on Social Media as an Entrepreneur (+ how to fix them!)
It’s incredibly hard to not be on social media as an entrepreneur. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or Youtube, social media is an incredible innovation that has forever changed the business and marketing landscape.
Social media is a powerful (and integral) part of business strategy because you can use it to build brand recognition, gain more leads, and test ideas out before launching them. But with the rate at which social media is changing, how do you know if the practices and strategies you’re using are still relevant?
Here are 5 mistakes that YOU might be making on social media as an entrepreneur and how to fix them!
Mistake #1: Not having a social media content calendar or not using a balanced (and diversified) content mix
A social media content calendar is an organized and automated approach to social media. You’re probably really busy as an entrepreneur and using a social media content calendar to pre-plan your posts ensures that you’re posting consistently.
A balanced and diversified content mix is the idea that your social media content should always rotate through a specific set of categories that are relevant to your business.
Let’s use the idea of a skincare brand, for example. As a skincare brand, your content mix may consist of daily routine posts, posts explaining product benefits, and promotional posts.
The idea is that every single piece of content that is shared on your social media platform addresses at least one of these content mix topics.
How To Fix It:
Begin by brainstorming your content mix. Your content topics should always be relevant to your brand and either educate your community, inspire your community, or promote your business.
Once these content topics have been established, you can draft your social media calendar.
For this part of the process, it can be helpful to use a social media scheduler like Buffer or Later, but if you want to keep things low-tech, trusty ol’ excel work just fine.
Your social media content calendar should plan out exactly what you’re posting: the image or video, the caption, the hashtags, and any location or user tags.
Key points to consider when creating your social media content calendar:
- Diversify the functions that you’re using. If you’re sharing on Instagram, for example, make sure that you’re creating content for in-feed posts, reels, stories, videos, etc.
- Create a consistent schedule so that your audience knows what to expect.
- Highlight members of the community for authentic engagement and reach.
Finding a content mix that is balanced and creating a social media content calendar that has business strategy integrated, will make sure that you’re making the most of your social media presence as an entrepreneur.
Mistake #2: Failing to engage with your audience or failing to respond to queries
Social media is called social media for a reason. At the core of it, these platforms were meant to build community and community requires interpersonal interaction and engagement.
As an entrepreneur, it’s your responsibility to nurture every potential lead that your receive through social media. Making sure that your audience feels cared for and seen sets you apart from your competitors and builds customer trust.
How To Fix It:
Set aside time every day to respond to comments, queries, and DMs. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time—just 30 minutes will suffice—but showing up every single day informs your audience that you care and are willing to listen to their concerns.
Mistake #3: Not monitoring social media metrics
While the first step to using social media as an entrepreneur is to post consistently, it’s highly ineffective if you’re not pausing every now and then to revise your strategy.
As with any business move, you have to know what’s actually working and what isn’t. Monitoring your social media metrics to see the most effective strategies will help you to establish a long-term, sustainable social media strategy that works for your business.
How To Fix It:
We recommend that you review your social media metrics at least once a month. Take note of the pieces that perform well, the ones that don’t, and notice any trends or change that might’ve been impacted by algorithm changes. Create a spreadsheet to track your performance and this will help you create a better social media strategy moving forward.
Mistake #4: Failing to give others credit for their work or not being sensitive to social conversations
Social media can be a muddy space with it comes to creative integrity. UGC (user-generated content) and curated pages have gained popularity as they’re relatively easy to create and grow rapidly but the tradeoff is that sometimes work is shared without the proper credits. That being said, as an entrepreneur, it’s probably unlikely that your social media strategy is entirely based off content from other creators, but occasionally resharing posts from your community can be a smart way to save time on social media marketing and build a stronger sense of community.
Furthermore, social media has increasingly become a place for activism and not tapping into social listening has proven to be a big no-no. While your brand doesn’t necessarily have to address controversial conversations head-on, it’s at least beneficial to be sensitive to culturally relevant topics.
How To Fix It:
When resharing content, always give the creator appropriate credit. To take it one step further, if you pull inspiration from a specific post and decide to re-create it for your own brand, giving the original creator a shout-out for the inspiration can be a great way to foster relationships within your niche. They might even repost your content and give you exposure to a new (and similar) audience!
Navigating controversial conversations can be difficult for individuals…not to mention for businesses. A smart way to approach socially-tense situations is to acknowledge the conversations that are happening within the space and to be respectful with any content that you might be sharing. Unless your brand is specifically related to a political or cultural cause, it’s always safer to err on the side of caution.
Mistake #5: Relying too much on automation
We’ve already established the importance of scheduling content out beforehand, but relying too much on automation can also be detrimental. Being inflexible with your content can impact your ability to engage in trends and by extension, limit your potential exposure and your brand’s social relevance.
How To Fix It:
Schedule out the content that addresses your core pillars but be mindful of any conversations and trends that might be happening in real-time. Your automated content strategy is something that you can always fall back on, but if you come across a trending idea that could really work for your brand during your daily engagement sessions, then feel free to move some content posts around to accommodate.
Social media can be tricky to navigate as an entrepreneur, but recognizing these mistakes and taking concrete steps to address them ensures that you’re doing all that you can to establish an effective and efficient social media marketing strategy. What are some mistakes that you’ve made in the past? Share them with the community down below!
