You’re Doing It Wrong: Social Media Happens Every Day

When I consult small business owners on their online marketing I often get asked the same question: “what am I doing wrong?” – which has led me to start up a new post-series which dissects the various different “You’re Doing It Wrong” situations and their answers. To kick things off we will focus what is probably the #1 mistake that most small business owners make when it comes to their social media. Inconsistent posting.

Social media isn’t something you can do once or twice a week. You can’t just make a bunch of posts on Sunday and then forget about it for a week or two. Social media is, almost, a living entity. As such it’s constantly acting and changing. Things are always happening, and if you’re not actively keeping your business name in the viewpoint of your online audience – then you get forgotten about.

Stop treating social media as a once-a-while activity if you want more than once-in-a-while interactions!

However this doesn’t mean you should post 5 times within 5 minutes. Doing that severely dilutes the audience your posts can reach. Facebook isn’t keen on showing multiple posts from the same person in a row – as such only a small amount of people will see each one of your posts. If you space these posts out throughout the entire day then you will reach a much larger audience. For an in-depth guide at some of the best times to post on Facebook, check out my video:

Consistency Is Crucial

If you have ever worked with a marketing agency in the past you will notice that one of their key first steps when setting up a new social media campaign is to create a social media calendar. This calendar will outline when different posts will go out during the course of a week or a month. Unfortunately how to setup a proper social media calendar will have to be a separate post entirely – however the important part is that you create a schedule which outlines your daily social media activities and requirements.

Something I want to make sure to point out is that the social media calendar will only outline the very basic of social media actions. Going above and beyond these minimum requirements is recommended. Live, in-action, or behind-the-scenes posts are encouraged throughout each week.

Staying consistently active on social media while also engaging and interacting with your audience is a sure-fire way to grow our online exposure. Furthermore the increased engagement in your posts leads to a higher overall post reach. All-in-all providing you exactly what you wanted from social media in the first place. A larger audience and more interaction with your customers.

Unfortunately this is exactly where most business owners fall off when it comes to social media management. Without a properly outlined schedule it’s easy to get overwhelmed with creating new posts and remembering to send them out. Remember, user generated content is a great way to obtain some quality material for your posts without having to do much work yourself!

So if you ever find yourself wondering if your doing social media right, step back and consider how much attention your really dedicating to it. Are you doing IT justice? Are you posting consistently? Are you monitoring your reviews and replying to people?