Social Media Red Flags for Entrepreneurs to Avoid

Social Media Marketing Red Flags For EntrepreneursAs an entrepreneur, you know the difference between working ON your business, as opposed to working IN your business.

Well, the same approach applies when it comes to your social media marketing strategy.

Sometimes, as business owners, we lose sight of the big picture when it comes to social media.

It’s easy to get caught up with the daily grind of creating content, scheduling posts, and maintaining multiple social media platforms.

It’s hard to stop what you’re doing and take the time to take a step back and audit what you’re doing.

It’s much easier to keep going full steam ahead, and hope that something sticks.

But this is a big mistake.

This blind approach leads to busyness, not business.

Once in a while, you need to take a cold hard look at everything you are doing on social media that pertains to your business and identify any red flags that indicate that your social media marketing strategy is falling short.

(By the way, if you don’t have a social media strategy, that’s a giant red flag right there.)

Social media red flags might go un-noticed at first, because they might not do any specific harm (for now), but they don’t do you or your business any good either.

More importantly, these red flags – if left ignored – will cost you time and resources down the road.

Entrepreneurs don’t have time and resources to waste. Analyze your social media marketing strategy today and look out for these major red flags…

Red Flag #1: Your social media marketing strategy lacks a call-to-action (CTA)

A call-to-action (or CTA) is the part of your social media content where you ask your audience to do something for you.

For instance, examples of solid calls-to-action could include:

  • Download my ebook
  • Subscribe to my YouTube channel
  • Follow me on Instagram
  • Leave me a comment or ask me a question
  • Buy my program

Typically, the CTA comes after you’ve offered something of value first. In other words, you’ve created some content that has educated, entertained, or enlightened someone, and now you can ask them to reciprocate.

Seems pretty obvious, right?

Right!

In fact it’s so obvious, we often make the mistake of assuming that we don’t need to spell it out for the audience.

This is a huge mistake.

Never assume that someone is going to follow you on Facebook just because they liked something you posted. You need to ASK THEM to follow you on Facebook.

People are not mind-readers. They are not dwelling on Facebook (or LinkedIn, or Instagram, or YouTube, or whatever) waiting to see what you come up with next. Rather, they are cruising by and if you’re worth their while, they’ll briefly stop to check you out and then… they’re gone again.

Gone forever.

BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T ASK.

Not asking is a horrible mistake to make on social media. It’s a wasted opportunity. If you look through your posts and you rarely see a blindingly clear CTA… huge red flag.

Furthermore, asking for too many things is also horrible.

“Follow me on Facebook and Twitter and while you’re at it, subscribe to my email list and see you at my speaking event next month, 50% off if you buy a ticket now on EventBrite! OMG contest opening soon!”

Yikes – please don’t do this.

When you ask for too many things, you get nothing. It dilutes your impact. Focus your efforts on one big goal at a time, such as growing your email list, and focus your CTAs like laser beams to get those email addresses.

One last thing about creating a CTA – you need to make it overwhelmingly easy for the audience to act on it.

Don’t ask them to type out a lengthy and complicated URL (they won’t do it) – instead, provide them with a clickable link. Don’t make them fill out a long and complicated form, it should be more like “Click, click, here’s your ebook.” Don’t make them go through several, arduous steps, make your CTA easy to understand and easy to follow.

Red Flag #2: Your strategy lacks autonomy from a specific social media platform

This might sound counter-intuitive, but the social media marketing strategy you use to promote your business should not rely too heavily on one single social media platform.

You might think, for instance, that you have an incredible Facebook presence, with great return on investment, and so you decide to focus all your efforts on getting more followers, comments, likes, and shares on Facebook. At first glance, this is a great idea. But it’s actually a red flag for potential disaster.

What if your audience leaves Facebook for another platform for reasons that are out of your control? What if Facebook introduces a new algorithm that makes it more difficult for your company to maintain its stronghold on Facebook?

Platforms become un-cool just as suddenly as they catch on. There is no use trying to change or complain about this. This is in fact just the nature of the beast. All you can do is accept and adapt.

A guaranteed way to make sure you stay ahead of changing trends is getting your followers to subscribe to an email list.

You will always have control over your list, and it will always work for you, no matter what happens out there.

Red Flag #3: Your social media presence lacks consistency

There are three types of consistency when it comes to social media marketing.

First, your business needs to be consistently present. You need to post often, and on a regular basis. Your publishing schedule needs to become predictable, so that your audience learns to rely on you and trust you for content on a regular basis.

Second, you need to be consistently great. You need to offer high quality content all the time. You must offer real value that educates, entertains, and/or inspires your audience. You can’t just sell your product or service, you need to bring consistent value that improves the lives of your audience.

And third, your messaging needs to consistently appeal to your target audience. Resist the urge to be all things to all people because that is the hallmark of bad branding.

Instead, you need to reach out to a specific niche and stand your ground.

In other words, you can’t expect to be the “go-to” company for anything unless you consistently put out consistently great content, consistently targeted for a niche audience.

 

If you’re ready to take your business blog to the next level, check out my FREE eBook, “How To Blog Like An Entrepreneur” here…

 

9 Comments

  1. gonmrm on November 29, 2016 at 8:26 pm

    Thank you for the post, loved the red flags! Best of luck with your business.

    Gonçalo from http://theentrepreneurslog.com



  2. Gary Dashney on November 30, 2016 at 11:35 am

    Thanks for informing us of the 3 red flags of social media for entrepreneurs, Nishi! For me, #2 hits home, as I need to branch out from twitter alone! I am starting to be more consistent with posting to social media (#3), and have found Buffer very beneficial in this regard.



  3. Daniel Olexa, CCHt on November 30, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    Thanks for the reminder. I’ve been creating content for two businesses lately and it’s become more evident to me that I need to continually evaluate my social media strategy. These red flags are helpful notes to keep me on target with my entrepreneurial goals.



  4. Nishi on December 2, 2016 at 10:58 am

    Thanks for commenting! Glad you liked it 🙂



  5. Donnie Kissick on December 5, 2016 at 3:54 am

    Great, quick tips for entrepreneurs. Social media can be overwhelming, I definitely need to be more consistent. On all platforms to develop that trust. Thank you!



  6. Tanya Schroeder on December 11, 2016 at 4:09 pm

    Okay, guilty of these prior and some present! It is so easy as an entrepreneur to get too involved in the busyness instead of the business. And consistency is key, but difficult on several platforms. Thank you for the excellent reminder article on how to successfully manage my social media and be the most successful!



  7. mikeferrarella on December 15, 2016 at 1:44 am

    Guilty guilty guilty! All things to improve upon for the furthering of my site. Thankful to have these things put to words in your article. Thank you!



  8. creativeowlatwork on January 2, 2017 at 2:18 am

    Good read Nishi 🙂 We share same interest- Content Marketing. Have a look at my blog and may be share some suggestions to improvise. Have a great year ahead. ?



  9. Nishi on January 2, 2017 at 9:22 am

    Will do and thanks for commenting! Happy New Year!