A social media mistake is an error committed by top management, which leads to a failed social media campaign. For example, if a brand has sought to outsource its social media marketing to an agency and it does not commit itself clearly to the campaign, then there is bound to be a failure. .
Seven serious social media mistakes that brands still make
This article is all about the seven key mistakes business undertakings must avoid, in order to succeed with their brand marketing campaign. This paragraph in particular will talk about the seven mistakes that brands make on social media that they cannot afford to make when brand identity creation.
a. Social Strategy Not Aligning With A Business Objective
Beware that your social media objectives should be the same as your overall marketing objectives. If this does not happen, the resources spent on your social media campaign will go a waste. Brands need to beware that the business objective of marketing a brand needs to be coherent with the social media strategy. Very few social media campaigns start with a business problem to tackle. Therefore, brands should communicate to the social media agency, the business challenge they wish to surmount through the social media campaign and they will get what they want from the agency.
b. Their Social Media Campaign Does Not Have A Fully Defined Role
Consumers spend 28% of their internet time on social media. Therefore, brands presence on social media is understood. However, how brands make their presence felt on social media is also a question worth answering. Brands who do not have the budget to run a TV campaign will use social media channels to communicate with their customer, or propagate their product. However, their social media strategy is all half-baked. They do not have a comprehensive social media strategy based on which they can go ahead and communicate with their target customer.
c. Their Social Media Activity Is Disconnected From The Scale Of Their Business
Brands make the mistake of not matching their social media strategy with the larger business objective. For example, if a brand wishes to create awareness about its product in a million households and its social media campaign targets only thousands of people, there will be a mismatch between the vision of the business and the social media strategy. When this happens, brands get hurt. Their business objectives are not met, resulting in their social media spending going waste. However, good businesses will get profits even from a failed campaign.
d. Brands Rely On Free, Viral Discovery Of Content
Many digital marketing agencies who are approached by big brands to market their products/services tell brands that their content will be so good that it will go viral of its own accord. However, this does not turn out to be true. Bigger brands operating on a large scale need to take up marketing their brand in a big way rather than rely on some content produced by a non-descript agency going viral. It is a shame for the brands that the industry still relies on such agencies for marketing their products/services.
e. Brands Misunderstand How People Use Social Networks
Today brands have grossly misunderstood the social media activity of people. As opposed to waiting to see, what a new brand has done to promote its products/services, today people are keener in watching what their friends are up to on Facebook. Therefore, the brands have not actually understood their consumers. It is the role of digital marketing agencies to study the consumer and tailor the social media message according to what the consumer wants. Only then will their marketing efforts bear fruit. The marketing message conveyed through a social media campaign should not be drowned in the cacophony of messages being exchanged by people.
f. Brands Underestimate The Resources Required For Social Media Marketing
Big brands should do social media strategy planning based on the number of audiences they wish to reach. Their resources should also be spent commensurately. The ratio of investment to the audience reached should not be stilted in favor of the latter. If brands wish to communicate with a large chunk of their consumer base, then their resource base for social media marketing also needs to be large. Only with a large base of resources will brands be able to fulfil their business objectives. Brands forget this fact and pay the price for their mistake.
g. Brands Are Not Proactive But Reactive
Brands should concentrate their marketing activities around the everyday moments in a consumer’s life. The bigger the quantum of customers to be reached, the larger should be the scale of their marketing activities. Invariably, brands make the mistake of trying to reach only those customers who engage with the brand. They ignore customers who do not interact with the brand image. This mistake could prove costly in that there will be no first time buyers of the brands products or services. In other words, brands will not be able to attract new customers with a reactive strategy.
These are the seven costly mistakes that brands commit when deciding the strategies for a social media campaign.
