Billions of people around the world use social media every single day. Multiple platforms enable them to create, share, and become engaged with content that enlightens and entertains them.
But social media in 2022 isn’t just about curating a brief video clip and calling it a day. Social media also involves community: building it and reaping the benefits.
In 2022, more people will turn to social media to shop for things they desire from small businesses rather than from big corporations. In the wake of the pandemic, customers are looking for trustworthy businesses that seek to make a difference in the world.
According to a recent report by IBM, 77% of consumers intend to shop responsibly by making their purchases from companies that treat sustainability as a priority in their mission and practices.
That has inspired Google to support E-A-T in its algorithms, which stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Content, regardless of the platform, should include value and authenticity.
If you own a small business, social media should play an integral role in your marketing strategy. As we complete the first quarter of the year, let’s take a look at the three biggest mistakes most small businesses commit.
Failure to Create an Editorial Calendar
In the absence of an effective plan, you may expect your social media accounts will likely fail. Simply shooting a photo and uploading it is not going to do the job.
You have to have a reason that justifies your decision to furnish that particular content to your audience. This is where an editorial calendar comes into play.
The calendar enables you to map your content across the coming months. It should include blog posts, email campaigns, social media posts, product releases, promotions, live events, and other business events.
When you do this, you can see where any overlap occurs, and how you could employ particular content on various platforms. For instance, you could take a blog post about an upcoming live-stream event and turn it into eye-catching social media posts.
Get people signed up for your email campaign to be notified when the event will begin or to take part in a special promotion for people who sign up early.
Google Calendar is a great tool for planning the release of your content. It’s completely free and you probably already have an account if you’re one of the 1.2 billion people who currently use Gmail.
Your editorial calendar can be synced to any and all of your smart devices so you can stay on top of your game.
Neglecting to Include a Clear Call to Action
For any kind of social media account to expand its audience, it has to generate engagement. Most social algorithms require posts to foster responses before they’re allowed to reach more people.
Engagement can include such reactions as likes, comments, shares, saves, or even just clicks. The more individuals interact with a post, the more others will get to see your content.
Maybe you’ve spent days laboring over your editorial calendar and creating beautiful, high-quality content. But after uploading it, you see no engagement; maybe a few likes here and there, but nothing substantial.
One of the common explanations would be that you didn’t include a clear call-to-action (CTA). Every post should have a CTA . . . and it doesn’t always have to be a sales pitch.
Ask your audience a question and invite them to leave answers in the comments. Tell them to like the photo if they’ve experienced something similar.
Provide an incentive for people to sign up for the email list you’ve been pushing for weeks. You won’t get what you want unless you ask for it.
Not Bothering to Cultivate a Community
As we said before, social media today entails building a community rather than just posting photos of last weekend’s barbecue. Viewers want to feel they belong to something bigger than themselves or might contribute to something of importance.
Your job as a small business is to locate that niche for a potential community and bring people into your circle. You start by figuring out who your target audience might be.
Investigate their demographics, purchasing behavior, and most important, whatever problems they could be looking to solve. Once you know this, you can create and share high-quality content that provides answers to their issues and encourages them on their way.
Summary
To wrap up, the three biggest mistakes small businesses have been making in 2022 are:
- They don’t create an editorial calendar.
- They fail to include a clear call-to-action with every communication.
- They’re not creating a community.
If you own or manage a small business, take a look at your recent social media marketing tactics. Do a complete analysis of your accounts and the content you’ve shared over the past several months.
Try to identify what has worked, and what could be done differently, especially in terms of these three common mistakes. There’s always an opportunity to adjust your social media strategy. You just have to be willing to accept when you’ve taken a wrong path.