The Mistakes We've Seen in Social Media

This blog post isn’t to call you or your business out, it’s simply to help you understand the mistakes we’ve seen people make with respect to social media. Some of these learnings we’ve experienced first-hand, some are actual advice we give to those seeking our help, and some are just things we’ve realized people don’t know about social media.

Be specific about your brand, and own it.

Social media starts with knowing exactly who the brand is, and who they want to serve. That’s the most essential piece to the puzzle. Sometimes people get lost trying to do what everyone else is trying to do or doing too many things. You don’t have to hop on every trending topic or fad. Write down everything your brand is and what it represents, then you can start creating your content around that.

Take Pattern Beauty for example (below). When you go to their Instagram page, likely the top place for their target demographic, you know exactly what their product is, who their target demographic is, and they do it in an exciting manner. Not every piece of content has their product in your face.

Winging it

No business has ever been successful without a plan. This notion also holds true with respect to social media. You can wing some things, but don’t make it your strategy because it won’t take you very far. You don’t need to know what you’re going to post every single day a month out. What we’re saying is that you’ve got to have a plan. Ask yourself this: what’s my long-term and short-term social media strategy for my brand and on which platforms?

Thinking you have to be present on every platform

Knowing what platform to be on is a part of your overall brand strategy because your business doesn’t need to be on every platform. Unless you’re a Nike, your target demographic probably isn’t active on every single platform.

Not asking for help

There is only so much you can learn on YouTube and random blog posts. Every brand’s social media problem is different. It would be impossible to find all the answers for free -- hidden somewhere on the internet -- that hit all your brand’s pain points. So, ask a professional for help. Do you need content? Do you need help with strategy? Do you need a new logo? Do you not understand which metrics you should be paying attention to? There’s a person for everything. Don’t be too prideful and think you can do everything. Lean on your network. But know that you might need help, and be ready to spend for it.

Having unrealistic expectations

An engaging following doesn’t happen overnight. It takes TIME to grow your brand on social media. I can’t state that enough. You can’t think in the first 6 months of your social media journey you’ll get 50K followers -- unless you’re strategically working with influencers, have pre-existing brand awareness, and putting paid promotions out there.

This same mistake also comes into effect when creating content. Really good content does not grow on trees. It takes proper planning, having the right people in place for the right execution, and an understanding of the runway to delivery.

• Let’s use this piece of content for example by the Chicago Bears:

  • This piece of content was posted after one of their players Taylor Gabriel scored 3 touchdowns.

  • This image was stylized. It has the player cut out with a ton of animated rockets. I’ll point out there’s a chance the Bears used a talented graphic designer in-house OR outsourced it to a talented freelance graphic designer.

  • Note: this graphic doesn’t include the 3 touchdowns in the image, so it could have been created months ago. So, they had the foresight to create a custom, cool-looking image for when Taylor Gabriel had a big game -- preparation is key.

  • Know that this image probably took more than 30 minutes to create.