We’ve all seen the terrible social posts – the ones so bad that we actually stop scrolling and take 10 seconds out of our day to unlike the brand page, or (worst of all) mark the ad as spam. If it’s truly terrible, then we may read in the news how it ruined the poster’s career and damaged the brand’s reputation.
You know social media is critical to your marketing strategy by now. But you’re afraid to make a mistake that might damage your brand image, not resonate with your audience, or not represent your company the way you intend.
How do you get started? And how do you avoid common mistakes?
I’ve cut my teeth curating content and crafting social media posts for remodelers for just under 5 years now, and I’ve discovered 5 extremely common mistakes. I’ve also developed successful plans for my clients regarding how to overcome each one.
Mistake #1 – Not Having A Strategy
Sharing on social media is not a shot in the dark; nor is it the shotgun method. You should know exactly who you are writing to because you’re writing to your ideal customer.
Take a moment to envision your favorite client you’ve worked with in the past 18 months. With them in mind, ask yourself these questions:
- What are their interests?
- What are their pain points?
- What are their dreams/desires?
- Why did they choose you?
Knowing the answers to these questions will help you write directly to your target audience and with purpose. Leave the guesswork to your competitors, and make sure you have a clear strategy of who you’re addressing and what they’re looking for when they find you.
Takeaway #1 – Write down your marketing “persona” so that you know who you’re trying to attract.
In marketing, we create personas of our ideal buyers. When we know exactly who we are writing to, we can create better content.
For example, we know that Stay-At-Home-Mom Susie is a decision maker and cares a lot about remodeling her first floor for a mudroom with ample storage and laundry. We also know that DIY Dan will read all of our home maintenance tips until he trusts us enough to make changes to his home.
When we know who we are writing to, we know how to create social media posts that add value to their lives. And that’s the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
If you know you need to be on social media but you don’t even know where to begin with creating personas, check out our Done for You Social Media program made with you in mind! We’ve created social media posts with an aggregate of several of our clients’ most common personas – simply pick and choose which ones are right for you!
Mistake #2 – Not Sharing Video
You’ve heard it a million times before from every social media expert – share video on social media. The stats are staggering:
- 64% of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook influenced a purchasing decision.
- ⅓ of online activity is spent watching video.
- Social videos generate 12x more shares than text and images combined.
I’m in the trenches sharing social videos every single day, which means I know just how challenging it can be. I can shed light on some quick and easy tactics on how to share video when you don’t have video.
Takeaway # 2 – Create 2 videos per month to share on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
Video is daunting if you’ve never made one before. But there are tools that make it easier than ever, rendering all of your obstacles obsolete:
- Your smartphone has a camera. Use it. Take videos of projects behind the scenes, shoot selfie videos of you explaining frequently asked questions, or even just take pictures throughout a project until completion and create a slideshow video.
- Your computer has a camera. Use it. Soapbox is a free, easy-to-use tool that allows you to shoot a video with your face and your screen. This is a great way to showcase floor plans, talk about pricing, and review your process. (Soapbox even has a chrome extension – get it here!)
- Video editing tools and subscriptions are cheap, easy, and insanely helpful. WeVideo is a super simple video editing monthly subscription that doesn’t require any software or installation. Check out their how-to video here. Wave.Video is a robust video creating tool that doesn’t require any software or installation. It comes with tons of free stock images and video clips that you can use to create or enhance your own videos. Check out their how-to video here.
Mistake #3 – Not Entertaining, Engaging, Or Educating
Let’s be realistic. Your audience is not coming to you to see fluffy posts that don’t add value to their lives. And sure, you may not be an entertainer, an orator, or a professor, but you can write an intentional post that will be valuable to your audience.
If you consider why your marketing personas are on social media to begin with, you’ll be able to craft posts that accomplish more than just a check on your to-do list. People want to laugh, like, or learn. It’s that simple.
Takeaway #3 – Post intentionally.
Stop thinking of social media as just another thing that needs to get done today. Start thinking about it as an open dialogue with prospects who are interested in what you do:
- Use language that your audience knows. You want them to understand you, and they most likely don’t know the industry terms that you use in your day to day. Write to your audience, not to yourself.
- Don’t just post to get something up. If this is your goal, don’t post that day. Wait until you have the time and energy to add value.
- Build know, like, and trust. Picture your sales funnel when you’re writing social posts. The more social posts you write, the wider the mouth of your funnel will be because new people will see your posts and learn about you. The better social posts you write, the more people will continue to move down that funnel because they learn to know, like, and trust you.
If you’re committed to adding value to your audience, download our free social media checklist to learn how to maximize every post on every platform.
Mistake #4 – Too Much Self Promotion
Yes, you’re on social to teach people about your company and why they should choose you. But that doesn’t mean you’re asking for their money every day. We’ve all heard the comparison that you shouldn’t ask someone to marry you on your first date. Don’t be that guy on social media.
Here are my top 3 cringiest social post fails:
- Posting only a link and the article title. What, you couldn’t think of 1 sentence to explain why this article may be entertaining, engaging, or educational for audience? Then you probably shouldn’t share it.
- Not asking a question. Do you expect people to interact with your social posts if they’re a bland statement? Try writing questions to encourage people to respond. A good litmus test for a social post is: if you’d scroll past it in your own Facebook feed or if you’d stop and respond to the question, it’s probably not engaging enough.
- Posts that appear automated. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is cringey. People are humans, not bots.
Takeaway #4 – It’s totally okay to promote your content! Just do it in a way that is meaningful to your audience.
If you can’t think of a way to write a meaningful post to your audience about your content, then your content may be the problem! You may not be writing the right stuff for your audience. If you need help with understanding what kinds of blogs you should be writing to share on social media, check out this list of 257 blog topics you can steal.
Good social media posts can be promotional as long as they’re adding value to your audience. You can showcase your recent project work, but talk about what client pain points that project addressed. You can share that you won a class=”calloutLink” Houzz award, but be sure to thank your current clients and talk about how you get joy from creating dream homes.
If you want to see some examples of strong social media posts for remodelers, check out our Done for You Social Media program. Start today at $40 off and jump start your social media program!
Mistake #5 – Not Posting Enough Content
As our president Spencer always says, you need to be consistent and persistent. According to several social media companies, the current stats for recommended posting frequency are higher than you think:
- Facebook – 1x per day
- Instagram – 1-2x per day
- Google My Business – 1x per week
- YouTube – 2x per month
- Houzz – 2x per month
It’s a lot. But if it were easy, everyone would be doing it (and succeeding at it).
Takeaway #5 – Create a content calendar. Create content in advance and fill the gaps with any third party articles (Houzz, House Beautiful, Southern Living, etc) as it happens.
Do you need to be hitting those numbers to succeed? Maybe not. Should you be setting benchmarks and pushing out consistent content that adds value to your audience across multiple social platforms? Absolutely.
If you already wear enough hats at your company and don’t want to add Social Media Manager to that, check out our Done for You Social Media Program created just for you. Retire your social media marketing hat and let us do the work for you. We use our proven methods that already work for our clients, so you don’t have to research, write, and share on your own. Get 30 Facebook posts, 10 Instagram posts, 15-20 free to use images, and 5-10 videos every month – and select which ones are right for your company. If you click the CTA below, you get all of that AND $40 off!
