15 Social Media Mistakes To Avoid (Mainly For Beginners)

Social media beginners are likely to get confused because there are so many things to learn and do on the various social media platforms, and sometimes, you just don’t know where to start or what to do.

From my experience, most beginners make the following mistakes. If you can avoid them, you will save money, time, and frustration. In addition, you will get good results faster without spending time on useless tasks.

If social media is something really new to you, then I suggest you start by reading these 2 articles (10 social media marketing tips for beginners and Difference between digital marketing and social media) and then come back to learn about the most common mistakes people do when using social networks.

1. Concentrating only on Facebook

Although the word Facebook has become a synonym for social media, it is not the only social network you can use to promote your website. Maybe for personal use, Facebook is all you need, but for SEO purposes and more web traffic, you need to engage on other social networks as well.

2. Working on too many social media platforms at the same time

While you should not only concentrate on Facebook, it will be very difficult to achieve good results if you try to engage on too many platforms simultaneously. This is one of the mistakes many people make, and in the end, they quit believing that social media marketing is useless and not rewarding.

So, instead of trying to get followers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn at the same time, you can start with a couple of networks, and then, once your profiles are mature, you can move on to the next.

It is worth noting that, after some point, your social media profiles will grow organically, and the effort you will have to put into each network will be less.

3. Your social media profiles are not SEO-optimized

Besides the traffic and visibility gained from social media, there are also some hidden SEO benefits. You can SEO your social media profiles and boost your presence in social media and search engines.

It's not that hard. You need to treat your profiles on social media networks like your website. Special attention should be given to the titles, URLs, and descriptions you use, and you should try to be authentic in what you say and share.

4. You don’t have the social media buttons on your website

A secret for social media success, especially for beginners, is that you need to give your users easy ways to share your content on social media. Social media buttons on your website or blog should be available in prominent places and the right size.

Many combinations will work, but in my opinion, for optimum performance, it is recommended to:

• Place a ‘Facebook-like box’ in the sidebar above the fold
• Share the content using large social media buttons. Try to position the buttons above the fold and in areas visible to users.
• Do not forget that many of your readers are using tablets to view your pages, so make it easier for them to share your content (another reason to use big buttons that are easily clickable by finger).
• If you use an image in your post, ensure the Pinterest button is available and configured correctly.

5. You share only content from your websites

You cannot share content only from your websites unless you are Seth Godin or Danny Sullivan. Social platforms' primary purpose is to network with other users, and sharing interesting content from several websites is a suggested way to get noticed and increase your followers.

Remember to follow the leaders in your niche, share their content consistently, and interact with them by posting comments or mentioning them in your posts.

6. You try to increase your followers too fast

All membership websites have rules, and social media networks are no exception. If you fail to obey their rules, you risk losing your account and all your time building your profiles. If you don’t want to read the policies of each network, then the best thing you can do is avoid exaggerations, and you will be fine.

For example, do not start adding and removing tens of new people per day but follow a more moderate approach. I would say that adding/removing 10-20 people per day (on each social network) is enough to grow your profiles steadily and keep you under the radar simultaneously.

If you follow a more aggressive pattern, you may receive several penalties (for example, Facebook may disallow you from adding new friends for 30 days, Twitter will suspend your account, etc.), which will slow you down further.

7. You want to be followed but forget to follow back!

This is another common mistake most beginners make with social media. They put all their efforts into following new people or removing those who are not following them back and forget to follow back those who are already following them.

If you don’t follow people who follow you, some of them will stop following you, which is why you see fluctuations in your follower count. There are many tools to monitor this, and although you don’t have to follow back anyone following you, it is suggested that you do so, especially at the beginning.

8. You don’t know the difference between a personal profile and a business profile

Almost all social media networks (maybe except Twitter) have different versions for personal and business profiles. Facebook has a Facebook Business page, and Pinterest recently introduced Pinterest for Business.

For Facebook, a business page is owned by a personal profile, so you must create both your profile and a business page. Each network has its rules, but creating a business page to promote your website is important. You can use the business profile to promote posts from your website only and your profile to promote posts from other websites.

9. You are either on auto-pilot or completely manual

As I mentioned above, there are many tools you can use to automate almost all social media tasks, but this is not recommended. Personal contact, where possible, will produce better results than auto-replies or anything that is not human.

On the other hand, you cannot do everything yourself. If you are active on more than one network, you will need a lot of time to make frequent posts, write comments, and engage with your followers, so maybe you should consider using a tool for some tasks, but not all.

10. You forget about engagement

Social networking is not only about connecting but also about engaging. Don’t forget that one of your goals when using social networks is to find new customers and more followers, so besides following people, you also need to engage with them. Personal contact is the most efficient way to promote your business offline, which is true in the online World.

11. You neglect the fact that people may LIKE your post without reading it or visiting your website

I have noticed this for some time now, and I am sure people with experience in social media may have noticed this, too. Many times, when I post a URL from my website on Facebook, I notice a good number of Facebook likes but not that many visits from Facebook for the particular page. This means that people see the post in their timelines and click the LIKE button just by reading the intro and seeing the image published with the post without visiting the website.

This example emphasizes the importance of using good images in your social media posts, as well as attractive titles and catchy descriptions. A post can go viral if you get these two things right and manage to push the message at a time when most of your followers are online.

12. You believe that all your followers see your posts

This is another misconception that disappoints many people. Let’s say that you have 2000 fans on your Facebook business page. When you make a new post using your Facebook business account, it will only be seen by approximately 200 people, i.e., only 10% of your fans will see the post in their timelines. The other networks have similar rules, and the easiest way to increase the number of people who see a post is to use advertising.

13. You don’t know that you can promote your profiles through advertising

Taking the lead from the previous point, it’s good to know that if you want to:

• Get more Facebook fans
• Get more Facebook likes on your posts
• Get more tweets
• Get more Twitter followers

…then the fastest way to do this is by utilizing the advertising options of the different platforms. Facebook has the Facebook ads. Twitter is the promoted accounts and tweets. They are easy to use, they don’t cost much, and the results are more than satisfactory.

I like to use Facebook advertising options to get more likes on my business pages, and so far, this has been generating some very good results with minimum cost.

Note: To clarify a misconception, you are not buying Facebook likes or tweets but paying for more views for your posts. If your posting is good, your followers will like or tweet about it.

14.  You don’t use images with your posts

Many studies have shown that posts with nice images will get more likes, tweets, Pins, etc. This is true for all social networks, including Twitter (which some people believe is only about 140 characters). So, whenever you want to share something on social media, ensure a good-quality image accompanies it.

15. You don’t use hashtags

A hashtag is the easiest way to follow a discussion on any platform. For example, during the NBA finals, you can search for #nbafinals on Twitter and stay informed about the latest stories.

Usage of hashtags is straightforward: use the ‘#’ followed by the keyword you want to use. For example, the tweet for this post is like this:

15 social media mistakes to avoid #socialmedia #socialmediamistakes

Conclusion

Social media is an important component of a digital marketing campaign and a must for every marketer who wants to compete online. Social media beginners may have difficulties understanding how each social network works, so it is very important to avoid the 15 mistakes outlined above.