The 5 Social Media Blunders (And Missed Opportunities) Associations Need to Know About
The latest estimates say roughly 5.04 billion people use social media around the world, with hundreds of thousands more joining every year.
When associations fail to leverage social media the right way, they miss a ton of opportunities. Let’s explore five common mistakes and missed opportunities associations tend to make with social media these days.
Mistake #1: Lack of Strategy and Planning
Social media marketing can be easy to learn and execute, but very hard to master. With paid advertising on apps such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and more, it’s easy to set up campaigns and let the AI-driven tools within these apps handle your ad targeting and reach.
It may seem convenient and worthwhile at first to “buy some awareness” for your member benefits, events, and more, but you’ll end up injecting stack after stack of cash with no valuable return on investment without a plan in place.
Likewise, if you go the organic route and create your social posts without paid ads, you can end up wasting massive amounts of your most precious resource: time.
Solution
Develop a social media strategy aligned with your overall goals and target audience. Research the trending topics and relevant hashtags.
According to that research, create a content calendar with different themes, engaging formats, and scheduled posts for consistent visibility.
Mistake #2: One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Not all social media platforms are the same. Going the easy way of posting identical content across all platforms renders your content mediocre and repetitive.
Solution
Tailor your approach to suit every platform. For example, LinkedIn users consume more text, so your approach should utilize well-organized, information-rich text.
On the other hand, Instagram is all about pictures and video. Your content should deliver the idea to the consumer from the photos and video alone.
Apply the same approach in each platform to utilize the unique features of each.
Mistake #3: Overly Promotional Content
Social media users are no longer prone to salesy language. Overly promotional content is a surefire way to lose their interest. Your content must cleverly show the promotion without forcing it on the users.
Solution
Focus on creating valuable and informative content that benefits and resonates with the interests of your target audience. Instead of just announcements, cleverly demonstrate a problem that your audience may have, and offer the solution through engaging content like short-form videos, podcasts, and infographics.
Mistake #4: Neglecting Engagement
Social media is a two-way street. Failing to respond to comments, not answering questions, and not participating in discussions will make you look disengaged.
Solution
Actively engage with your followers. Show your audience that you’re listening and that their voices are heard.
If you’re too busy to do all of that yourself, you may want to train a social media admin and hire them to do that job consistent with your association’s guidelines.
Mistake #5: Not Measuring and Adapting
Social media trends and interests change now faster than ever. Success in social media requires ongoing analysis and adaptation. Ignoring these key metrics means you’re missing valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not.
Solution
Constantly evolve your social media approaches based on the changes in social media and the way users consume information. For example, when a platform introduces a new method, like Facebook introducing hashtags, you should immediately ride the trend.
Track your social media performance using platform analytics to see what type of content resonates the most and which platforms are driving the most engagement.
The results of such insights will help you refine your strategy to increase reach while reducing your spending.