Today social media is one of the most effective ways to market your business. It is a tool that everyone is using, but not everyone is successful. You might be frustrated to see a competitor’s Facebook page taking off with likes and followers when yours is dwindling in engagement every day. But before you give up, make sure you aren’t making any of these crucial mistakes.

Not Planning Future Content

Time and time again businesses will set up their new platform, bring in followers, post engaging content for two weeks, and then completely disappear. They stop posting, people forget about them, and all that hard work goes to waste. This is why it’s so important to set up a plan for posting from the beginning and be constantly generating new ideas and content. Set clear goals and understand exactly what kind of content needs to be posted to relay your message. Failing to make a specific plan will likely lead to losing interest and motivation, so think ahead as much as possible.

Failing To Respond to Comments

Engagement with your audience not only builds trust and relationships with them but boosts your visibility on social media platforms as well. When you respond to a Facebook comment it shares your post not only with the person you replied to but with their friend group as well. Replying to comments and messages also shows that you have great customer service and value others’ time. Failure to do so makes you seem inhuman, cold, and even ignorant.

Spamming

While it’s good to post frequently and have a good internet presence, over-posting (or spamming) can be a detriment. Posting links or ads on other people’s business pages is incredibly unprofessional and will give people a negative outlook towards your company. When you do post links, make sure to include conversational text with it. The goal is to come across as friendly and human as possible. The internet is notorious for “bots”, or fake accounts, and you don’t want to be written off as one of them.

Posting the Same Thing Every Day

Make sure your posts are diverse. If you post the same article, picture, or video everyday people will tune out and stop interacting. If you don’t have any new content of your own to post, you can share relevant videos or tweets from other similar accounts. They might even share your posts in return and give you some extra exposure!

It’s easy to get discouraged when your numbers aren’t growing as fast as you’d like, but avoiding these mistakes and staying consistent will help you grow your social media presence and your business in no time.