When it comes to anything on the internet as a business, you tend to make mistakes before you learn the correct way of doing things and that’s okay.  But, wouldn’t it be nice to be aware of the mistakes and to keep from doing them right off the bat?  Sure it would!  That’s why we have compiled this post.  It’s dedicated to users such as yourself that don’t want to go through trial and error.  Instead, they want to get right down to the nitty gritty and do it right the first time.  Below, you will find an array of social media mistakes that people tend to make.  These mistakes are geared towards different social sites, not just one like Facebook or Twitter.

Pinterest – Being Too Spammy

Pinterest is a great way to promote your business, services or products.  But, unfortunately people see just how many people are on this site and they get way too overzealous by posting boards that are completely self-promotional.  Any SEO company will tell you that this is the incorrect way of going about this.  Instead, sprinkle your self-promotional posts among non-self-promotional posts.  For example, say you are an author, and you want to create a board such as The Best Books to Read In 2015.  Instead of including all 20 of your books, maybe include 3, but spread them out over the entire board.  So do 3 non promotional, 1 promotional, 5 non promotional, 1 promotional, 10 non promotional and 1 promotional, etc.  You can do it however you want, but scattering your books throughout is way smarter.

 

Assuming Ads Aren’t For You

Sites like twitter, Facebook and now Pinterest are offering on-site ads you can purchase to get eyes on your posts or likes to your page.  Pinterest just started this cool thing called Promotional Pins.  Essentially you pick a pin off of one of your boards and you can promote it using PPC – pay per click.  The higher your PPC, the higher up your pin will appear in the search results.  Twitter also uses this self-advertising platform, but in a different way.  You can find people that like the same “niche” your business is in, you can become a featured user on the side of the page and you can get specific posts seen more.  Facebook on the other hand has ads you can buy for likes to your page, likes to a post, or views to a post.  If you’ve never tried these ad options before and you automatically assume it won’t work for you, you are making a big mistake.  If nothing else, throw in a few bucks on all 3 sites – say $10 each, and see what results you get.  Sometimes you have to spend money to make money!

 

Self-Centered Posts

When it comes to social platforms it’s really difficult to come up with posts to begin with.  So people and businesses tend to talk about what they know the most about; themselves.  This is an incorrect way of using social platforms.  People don’t want to read blog posts and social updates that are always about you you you.  You’ll notice that people and businesses that do this won’t get a lot of likes, comments or engagement on the posts.  It’s a turn off for consumers.  Instead, you need to start thinking about push and pull conversational marketing, you need to start thinking about posts that get the most engagement, and you need to start thinking outside the box.  It might be more difficult come up with idea to post about if they don’t include yourself, but there are tools out there to help you.  Consider Post Planner Status Update Generator, Twitter Trends, Google Keywords and more.  These tools will give your ideas of what to post and talk about on your platforms that are relevant to your niche.

 

Only Joining Up With One Website

When businesses open a new Twitter account, they tend to think that’s it.  No more accounts.  While that may be true for people like David Boreanaz or Angelina Jolie, it’s not really true for you.  It might take more work, but according to the top SEO trends, 2-4 accounts with different sites will get you more involved in the community, leave you with a better web presence and let’s be honest, get you communicating with different people.  No one likes to admit this, but different social sites are for different people/businesses.  Twitter tends to lean more towards business and artists.  Facebook tends to lean more towards businesses and consumers that are more family oriented.  Pinterest has a user base of more women than men – it’s actually somewhere along the lines of 85% of women that use the site.  So yes, using JUST one account is easier, but if you want to reach more people, joining up with a few of the top sites is a good way of doing that.  I have my own top five, as does any article revolving around the top SEO trends, and they are twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and YouTube.

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