Is Your Social Media Strategy Falling Short? Avoid These Mistakes!

Is your social media strategy not yielding the results you expected?

That may be that you are using tactics social algorithms find unethical, or they don’t comply with social platform guidelines.

In this insightful guide, we will discuss some common social mistakes that you may be making, knowingly or unknowingly, that can impact your social growth.

Let’s start!

Using Follow-Unfollow Tactics

If you quite often follow and unfollow people as a strategy to increase your followers, you better stop doing that.

Social algorithms are clever enough.  They don’t even take a second to detect your intentions.

So, when you follow and unfollow, they have an idea of what’s cooking in your mind.

And this, in their eyes, means violating or manipulating community guidelines.

In this scenario, to stop you from doing so, social algorithms may penalise your account.

Also, if you are unfamiliar, almost all social platforms have a ceiling limit on how many people you can follow and unfollow in an hour, a day, or even all the time.

For example, the following limit on Instagram is 150-200 accounts per day and 10 accounts per hour.

Similarly, you can’t unfollow more than 200 and 60 accounts per day and per hour, respectively.

If you cross this limit, Instagram usually gives a warning, and if you avoid that, it may eventually ban you from following and unfollowing for a certain period.

Though Instagram usually uplifts the ban soon, this impacts social presence badly, and also, if you keep applying the strategy and neglecting warnings, the worst the platform does is suspend your account.

Read also: Do not do these five things with your social media accounts

Overusing Hashtags

Undeniably, hashtags are a great tool to reach relevant people. They have so much potential, sure.

But that’s only if you are using them strategically and not desperately!

If you overdo that, they seem spammy, and you seem eager for attention to algorithms. In this scenario, algorithms, instead of fueling up your post, may bury it somewhere.

Even social platforms have their own limit on the maximum number of hashtags in a post.

For instance, the maximum number of hashtags on Instagram is 30 per post.

For Twitter, it recommends using no more than 2 hashtags per post.

Although Facebook does not have such limits. Still, experts say that using them in abundance reduces reach and sometimes can be harmful.

Read also: 5 Misconceptions about Digital Marketing

Neglecting Your Profile

Simply creating a social media account doesn’t accomplish the job. There is more to do for social success. You will have to set it up thoroughly and share posts consistently.

Setting up a social profile strategically is called social media optimisation.

In SMO, you smartly insert your brand’s keyword, hashtag and services in the bio and username in the first place and gradually in post captions, story reels, and almost everywhere.

Doing so makes your brand credible. Gradually, both algorithms and audience start knowing what you do, what you sell or what you offer.

When this happens, you will start experiencing organic reach miracles, gradually taking you close to your social media goals.

Note: If you don’t know how to optimise social media and are looking for a social media marketing company, you can get in touch with us!

Neglecting Video Content

This era belongs to reels and, of course, TikTok videos.

So, if you still don’t give more weightage to video content in your social media marketing strategy, you don’t need to complain about the stagnant growth of your brand on social media.

Sure, hashtags, infographics, and stories make great content strategies, but the viral aspect of the reel is something else that beats all.

The scenario ahead shows that considering videos for social marketing is becoming non-negotiable.

Obviously, you can come up with different types of videos like BTS, how-to-do guides, testimonials or anything depending on your niche.

To brainstorm ideas, AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard and Dall E are there in abundance to help you in video content creation.

Not Conducting Social Listening

If you constantly monitor who your brand mentions, that is great. But social media require more than that.  Besides keeping an eye on the activities or engagement happening on your account, you also need to listen to what people have to say about your industry as a whole.

For example,

• what is the current discussion or trend in your industry,
• what are customers talking about
• what they like or dislike?
• How competitors are doing?
• Is competition getting an edge over you?
• If yes, how are they thriving?
• What are people’s interests?
• Are people appreciating a product or criticising it, etc.?

When you actively listen to all this, you will have better and real-time knowledge of the market and demands that are based on facts and market and customer perspective and not based just on ideas!

As in W. Edwards Deming’s words, without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.

Simply put, when you have information, you will obviously develop a better marketing strategy.

So, listening to social media is highly important for social success. There are various social media listening tools in the market that help you fetch all the information about the market and customers in one place you can use them for help. We have shared some social listening tools. You can check them out.

Final Note:

Are you ready to level up your social media game? Avoiding these common pitfalls and implementing effective strategies can lead to significant growth for your brand. Remember, success in the digital world requires adaptability, authenticity, and a willingness to listen to your audience.

If you want us to help you with your social presence, you can take a look at our social media marketing packages or call us on +91 901 276 4000