Truth be told, no one knows everything. Often even the experts make simple mistakes that can be easily avoided. Here is a list of a few things that I regularly see on social media sites, that every professional should take note of.

A General Aversion To Social Media

So often it seems that companies are generally weary of the use of social media for business purposes. However, the importance of its use cannot be ignored.

Did you know that every 2 seconds a new member joins LinkedIn?

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Or that Youtube reaches more adults than ANY cable TV network? The use of social media is the number 1 activity on the internet, and therefore the easiest (and cheapest) way for a business to reach their audience. Under utilizing it, or ignoring its benefits all together, can severely (and negatively) impact your company.

Boring Content

Simply put, don’t be boring. Now this may seem a bit of a daunting task, but I’m not asking you to reinvent the wheel. It’s so simple to create engaging and fun content for your social media platforms. Some things you can easily begin doing include:

Posting pictures
Asking questions
Relating a funny story or a piece of local news that impacts your community

Your audience really just wants to hear your take on a topic, so be personal and be genuine. Click here to read more on how to create killer social media posts.

No Call To Action

A call to action (or CTA) is a sentence or word or image that urges your audience to do something; You are literally asking them to take action. You can ask them to read an article, download an ebook, attend an event or give their opinion on a topic (notice how each request starts with a verb). This is important to include because a call to action entices your target audience to actively engage with you on social media.

Quantity Over Quality

Too often I see companies and professionals focus on the quantity of social media content they produce, instead of the quality. Interestingly enough, it is the shorter more succinct posts that make the largest impact:

A Facebook post is more likely to be “Liked” if it contains less than 70 characters
A Twitter a post is more likely to be be “Retweeted” if it contains less than 115 characters

On that note, it’s best to limit how many posts you make throughout the day too. While not bound by this rule, I generally never make more than 1 Facebook post per day. I focus on the quality of the post I am making, and by limiting how much content I produce, I can usually generate more traffic to that specific post.

If you’re able to avoid these mistakes that so many make, you’ll notice the difference it can have. Find out what method works best for you and your company, and then fine tune your day-to-day activity. Social media can be an indispensable resource when used correctly!