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You can only make so many mistakes before your business fails.

Whether you believe it or not your customers and prospects are on social media. Social media can make or break your company. Social media marketing can be a great way to connect with other businesses, find new sales leads, and communicate with customers. If used incorrectly, social media could ruin your online reputation.

If you can avoid social media mistakes, your business is one step closer to success. Social media strategy, planning, and proper execution will lead you to success.[adrotate group=”4″]

Read on to find out about the most common social media marketing mistakes.

Have a plan.

Know what your goals are and what resources you need. Having a plan will help you measure success.

Have a content strategy.

What kind of content do you want to create? Who is your target audience? Strong content connects you to customers. Connections become relationships, which drive return on investment.

Give more sell less.

In fact, sell much less. A failing social media strategy is all about selling. Brands that make social media marketing work give 90% of the time and sell only 10% of the time.

Don’t try to be everywhere.

If you try to be on every social network, you’ll be nowhere. If you are starting out, focus on one or two platforms. It is easy to get excited and create too many accounts too soon. If you can’t stay active on all of them, you are doing more harm than good for your brand.

Invest in assets.

Having a social media presence requires investing in assets. Create a strong email list, a blog or content website, and other media assets like videos. All of these elements are important to social media marketing.

Never pay for followers.

Many businesses pay for fake fans and followers. If there ever was a vanity metric, it is the number of social media followers.

Paying for followers is like paying people to come to your birthday party.

When you build real connections with people there is no need to pay for fake followers.

Practice kindness.

Everything you say or do on social media becomes part of your brand. Remember to be kind to others. Communication on social media platforms may be relaxed, but it should also be respectful. There are real human beings behind those screens.

Avoid #hashtag hell.

Hashtags are useful, but don’t over do it. #Just #because #you #can #it #doesn’t #mean #that #you #need #to #use #a #hashtag #for #everything. Harness the power of hashtags by using them, but not overusing them.

Pay attention to Facebook comments.

Customers appreciate attention and quick response time. Ignoring user feedback is a huge social media mistake. Be attentive to your customers and prospects, and you will see your business grow.

Commit to social media.

Creating a social media presence is fun at the beginning. But some companies lose interest over time, leaving Facebook pages unattended. Make social media part of your day-to-day business.

Have a lead generation strategy.

Social media is an excellent way to generate new interest in your products or services. Make sure to have a clear call to action. Tell people what to do. Do you want them to go to a landing page include a link with a call to action. Do you want people to see your video? Give them a reason to click to view. Then, give people a way to enter their email or complete a lead gen form.

Overactive post syndrome.

Yes, there is such a thing as an overactive social media presence. Posting and sharing one content after another will result in fatigue. Overactive social accounts are ignored or unfollowed.

Misspelled words.

Just because it is 140 characters it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to proofread it. No matter how short or long you post you should still proofread your content before you publish.

Use consistent branding.

Your social media strategy will likely include many platforms. Each of these platforms will have different styles, color palettes, etc. Make sure your message stays loud and clear everywhere. Your brand should be recognizable across all platforms.

Pitch Pitch Pitch.

Too many businesses are in love with themselves. Don’t be that brand that can’t shut about itself. Don’t talk too much about your brand.

Have fun!

People use social media to have fun and connect with friends. Forgetting that fact is another big social media mistake. Keep your social media presence lighthearted and relatable.

Pay attention to your profile. No matter what social media platform you use, make sure to complete your profile. Every little detail on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn counts. Having a complete profile will help users get to know your company.

Focus on quality over quantity. You should only put out content that is valuable to your audience. If you overload your pages with useless stuff, you will quickly lose your audience. Make sure your social media content is worth your audience’s time.

Stay active.

Keep your users engaged. Add new content regularly, and don’t forget to update your photos, too. An outdated page will quickly go dead. Once a page drops in the Edgerank, it is very hard to pull it back up. Avoid this social media mistake. Give users a reason to come back to your page again and again.

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