12 Common social media blunders and how to fix them

More and more companies are realizing the potential social media marketing has for their businesses. Whether you are just getting started using social media for your brand or are well versed in the space, it can be hard to determine which steps will lead to measureable results, and everyone will make mistakes. Especially in a space like social media marketing, a “one size fits all” approach is all but non-existent. The social media marketing world can be difficult to navigate, but here are 12 mistakes you don’t have to make on your journey to success.

1. Not setting clear objectives

If social media isn’t working for you, reevaluate your goals. Defining clear, realistic objectives will help you keep your eye on the prize and post with purpose. 

2. Buying followers

Social media marketing isn’t solely about likes and favorites. To be taken seriously as a business, you need to build relationships with your customers and generate leads to see real ROI and results. Consumers are tech savvy and can tell when your follower-to-engagement ratio seems off. Social media channels are a first line of contact between your customers and your brand, and we are wired to avoid brands we don’t trust. Besides creating a horrible first impression, the smoke and mirrors of buying followers is a waste if you aren’t getting your audience to interact with your posts. If you did buy followers, don’t wonder why your messages aren’t getting shared or your links get no clicks. It’s always best to build an audience the right way.

 3. Posting overly promotional content

Let’s say you go on a date and the person only speaks about him or herself. Quite the turn off, right? The same applies to your social media audience. Social media is all about building relationships, and successful relationships are rarely one-sided. Your audience wants to know you have more to offer than pushy sales messaging or a product. Modern social media is about adding value to your followers’ lives. Try to follow the 80/20 rule: 80 percent non-promotional content and 20 percent posts with calls to action.

4. Posting irrelevant content for engagement

This includes three components: posting irrelevant content, hopping onto trending topics that have nothing to do with your brand, and using a trending hashtag without research. Irrelevant content (like posting a cute kitty for the sake of getting likes) will only hurt your brand. You run the risk of building a following that isn’t interested in your product or service. For the most part, keep content relevant.

5. Not researching hashtags or trending topics

Research all trending topics and hashtags before putting your spin on either. Find out as much as you can about the conversations happening around the topic or hashtag to avoid any sticky situations with sensitive subjects.

6. Not using visual content

Visuals are a very big deal. In fact, posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts. Try incorporating different kinds of visual content such as photos, videos, and, GIFs into your social media marketing and messaging. Another no-no? Using low-quality images. There are tons of free image resources such as Unsplash.com and Canva.com that help brands source and create images.

7. Leaving social profiles incomplete

Your profile allows you to convey what you do and who you are in the few precious moments you have to capture a visitor’s attention. Since social profiles and content now rank in search, it is important to fill these in. Make sure to complete as much of your biography or “about” section as possible, and include a link to your website or landing page. Don’t be afraid to have a little fun and show your brand’s personality. Include keyword hashtags on Twitter and use high-quality header and profile images.

8. Lacking a strategy or content plan

“Victory loves preparation” and “consistency is key”: keep both of these phrases in mind when it comes to your social media marketing. Haphazardly posting every once in a blue moon does not equate to instant sales, traffic, or interaction. A general strategy and a good content plan helps brands stay consistent, keep on track with posts, build buzz, maximize results around campaigns or events, maintain audience interest, and attract new eyes to their account. Post at least two times a week to keep increasing growth.

9. Not responding to comments/complaints

Getting into arguments with trolls doesn’t look great for your brand, but ignoring legitimate complaints, questions, or concerns is a major mistake. Take the opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade and show customers you care by responding to social media inquiries. If a response is too involved for a platform, swiftly take the matter offline by asking the commenter to email you; then take it from there. Others will see that you took action and feel reassured that if anything goes awry, your company cares and will take the appropriate measures to correct it. Talk about building trust!

10. Not knowing the rules of specific networks

Learn how people interact on each network and use those elements in your own posts. For example, hashtags are searchable and clickable on Twitter, yet they do nothing on LinkedIn, so it’s a good idea to adjust captions when cross posting. Ignoring the communication rules of a network could make your messages look automated and inauthentic, which can turn off potential followers.

11. Not analyzing anything

Analytics is one of the most important facets of social media marketing. If you don’t measure, you won’t know if you’ve reached your goals or if your initiatives worked. Analyzing your audience, content, and posting time are a few important metrics that can help dictate changes in your social media strategy. Use built-in tools such as Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics, third-party tools, and measurement of social traffic and conversion with Google Analytics. Remember to use your numbers to set benchmarks.

12. Using too many or too few hashtags

Avoid getting hashtag happy. Engagement gets dragged down if you use too many hashtags in your captions. Users find captions with too many hashtags difficult to read and often ignore them. On the other hand, not using hashtags prevents users from seeing your posts when they search for specific content. Stick to one to three relevant hashtags per post on Twitter and use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram. The verdict is still out on whether hashtags on Facebook get more action but you can use up to 11 on that social network.

Final Thoughts

Building an engaged, organic community takes time and effort. Social media marketing is about building long-term relationships with your audience of potential consumers, creating connections beyond a simple “like” or “follow.” You will make mistakes along the way. Some may help and some may hurt, but being aware of the most common mistakes can help you navigate social media marketing like a pro.

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12 steps to social media success

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How to make money with Social Media

There are more money-making opportunities on social media than you might realize. Social media, in fact, can be quite lucrative.

Many experts say that social media is for connecting with people, and not for selling, but at some point, you're going to want to leverage the connections you create. If you've built up enough trust with your followers, they'll be more inclined to check out your recommendations and the links you share.

Here are six ways you can make money on social media.

1. Promote affiliate products.

No matter what industry you're in, you can find great products to promote on ClickBank. And if that doesn't quite jive with you, you can also become an Amazon Associate, promote products of your choosing and earn commissions on them -- Amazon has no shortage of products.

Next, instead of spamming links on Twitter and hoping for the best, keep in mind that the most honest and effective way of promoting affiliate products is through reviews. If you personally use a product and like it, and know that your followers serve to benefit from it, then write a long-form review on your blog, and share why you like the product. Don't be afraid to talk about what you like and don't like about it. You can even use video if that's more your style.

Also make sure to disclose your affiliate relationships. This is a legal requirement in most cases, but it's also "best practice." Your readers or viewers will appreciate your honesty.

2. Create and promote your own information products.

If you already have a blog, and you've demonstrated your expertise on a specific subject over a period of time, there may be an opportunity to create an ebook, audio program or video course and sell it to your audience. Social media is the perfect place to promote such a product.

Platforms like Gumroad, Sellfy and Amazon's KDP program make it easy for you to publish and sell your PDF, MP3 or video file at a price of your choosing -- keeping in mind that all platforms do take a cut, even if it's small.

As with anything, quality is key to creating something people not only want to read, but will pay to read. If you take extra care in creating great information, designing and promoting it well, you will definitely see more sales.

3. Promote products and services.

There are many opportunities for you to share sponsored posts that promote the products and services of other businesses. This is a very direct way of earning money from social media.

But, if you don't have a sizable following, this may not be much of an opportunity. You also have to beware of over-promoting products for want of money, because if your followers see that you're constantly tweeting about one product or another, not only will they not click on the links, they will also un-follow you.

It's important to mix things up. It's wise to take the time to craft a proper social media posting schedule, to make sure you're adding value to your followers while promoting products. Calls to action should definitely be a part of your social media strategy, but every post can't be a call to action.

4. Use visual media to promote your crafts.

If you tend to create handmade crafts, art pieces, or even articles of clothing and knitting, there may be an opportunity to showcase your products on social media. Instagram and Pinterest may seem like obvious places to hit, but Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are also great channels for sharing visual media.

If you have an Etsy account, you can direct your followers to check out your products there, and between the different channels, you have the potential to make a good living.

5. Promote your coaching or consulting services.

Social media is a great place to generate leads for your consulting business. Whether you're a guitar teacher or a life coach, if you have demonstrated expertise in a specific area, you can create more interest for your services by connecting with your target customer on social media.

Coaching sessions can be conducted over Skype, so this is definitely an opportunity to make money without leaving home. Consulting can be lucrative, so remember not to undercut yourself -- charge a fair price for your time and effort.

This strategy can also work in unison with selling information products, as those who want your advice are more likely to be interested in the ebooks and courses you've created.

6. Join the YouTube Partner Program

Building a popular YouTube channel can be a lot of work. But if you already have a following, or you're determined to build your audience, joining the YouTube Partner Program to make money on advertising might be a path worth exploring.

There are prominent YouTube content creators who have made substantial amounts of money with this program, but they are the exception rather than the rule. It would take a lot of time, strategy and sheer luck to make money on YouTube. However, this is a good thing to keep in mind with advertising in general. Unless you're already getting a lot of views and clicks, you're not going to make a lot of money on them.

Final thoughts

These are just some of the many ways you can make money with social media; there are plenty of other money-making websites for you to explore.

It's important to remember that making money on social media isn't necessarily easy. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to work hard, test and experiment, your chances at success will be far greater than the chances of those who just want to "give it a try" to see what happens.

So, build a strategy; don't just wing it. Make a plan for how you're going to reach your financial goals, and be willing to adjust as necessary.

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15 Inspiring Entrepreneurs Who Built Careers Around Their Passions Through Social Media

Have you heard this advice before: “Follow your passions!” “Do what you love!”?

And have you thought, what if my passions are my hobbies? Things that I could never be paid for?

For some, the advice to “do what you love” seems possible only if you have a passion for things like finance or accounting or coding. Well, I’ve been happy to find that it’s possible to follow your passions into a career, no matter what those passions may be. With social media, you now have a platform to do what you love—and to make a career out of it.

I found 15 amazing entrepreneurs who built their entire businesses and careers around social media, many earning $100,000 or more. 

I’d love to share their stories with you—and how you can follow their lead to turn your passions into a career, through social media.

How to Earn an Income Doing What You Love on Social Media

It sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it?

Posting photographs or tweets a few times each day to launch a lucrative career doing what you love.

And you might be wondering how these social media entrepreneurs make money. Because after all, a career requires an income.

I’ll get into the specific stories of 15 entrepreneurs below. First, I thought I’d share the many number of ways—the specific avenues and channels—that they use to make money on social media.

1. Sponsorships

Sponsorships are responsible for a lot of the money earned through social media, especially for those just starting off. Brittany Furlan, Caitlin Turner and Shaun McBride all started with sponsorships.

Sponsorships occur when brands pay to be associated with you. When a tourism board pays Instagrammer Lauren Bath to work with them and feature their location, they are sponsoring Lauren.

Podcasts are usually funded through sponsorships as well. The sponsor will pay to be featured on the podcast at some point during the episode.

2. Advertisements

Advertisements are another popular method of monetizing social media. YouTubers like Liz Meghan use ads to make a living through their social media accounts.

Advertisements differ from sponsorships in that there’s usually not a long term relationship with the entrepreneur.

3. Selling products

If you have a product based business like an eCommerce store, this is perfect for you.

Social media can be a great place to sell your products – or, at the least, build up a following and redirect those followers to your website to buy your products.

4. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing allows you to work with brands to help them sell their products, earning you a commission each time somebody buys through your affiliate link.

Many social media channels allow affiliate links to be placed within a post, and when the follower clicks on the link and makes a purchase through it, the poster gets a portion of that sale.

5. Promoting services

If a service-based business is more up your alley, you don’t want to look past social media as a marketing channel.

From hair stylists who post their work on Instagram to coaches who use Facebook as a platform to engage with potential clients, there is a lot of opportunity on social media to promote your services.

6. Boosting your visibility as an artist

If you’re an artist, writer, or creative entrepreneur, social media can be an amazing tool to boost your visibility.

Artists like Us the Duo, Grace Ciao, and writer Jeff Goins all have used their social media channels as methods of boosting their visibility to book gigs and sell their art.

Why Social Media Works

Creating social media content every day. Scheduling it at the right times. Analyzing what followers respond to and what they ignore. The time it takes to manage a social media marketing strategy can be significant.

Here are two reasons why the time is well worth it, especially for those looking to build a new career.

1. Social Media Expands Your Reach by 1,000x

How many people visit your website each day?

200? 1,000?

Those aren’t bad numbers. And it may make sense for you to spend time on your own website rather than social media because your website is like your online home.

But think about it:

• Instagram has 100 million active users
• Twitter has over 135 million active users
• Youtube sees over 1 billion active users each month

Even if only 0.1% of the people on those channels are interested in what you’re doing, you’ve still amplified your reach by over 1,000 times by using social media to spread your message and share your passion.

2. Social Media Establishes Your Expertise 

The lifeblood of social media is content.

Even if you’re posting a 6-second video on Vine or a photo on Instagram, you’re posting content.

When you’re consistently posting content about a specific topic, you establish yourself as an expert.

Take, for example, two mathematicians who love numbers. Who establishes herself as an expert?

• Mathematician A, who loves her work but avoids social media, or
• Mathematician B, who teaches others how to do math on Youtube and has 200,000 followers?

They’re both experts, but Mathematician B has established herself as an expert. She has built an audience, and provides value to others by demonstrating her knowledge on social media.

15 Entrepreneurs Who Built New Careers Through Social Media

1. Brandon Stanton

The creator of Humans of New York

In 2010, after losing his job, Brandon Stanton began to take candid photographs of people on the streets of New York and post them to Facebook.

Self-taught, Brandon took photos that reflected his passion, and these photos quickly began to gain traction on Facebook.

Humans of New York now has over 12 million Facebook likes, and it has launched a speaking, photography, philanthropic and media career for Brandon.The revenue generated by HONY prints sold goes directly to charity, and Brandon makes a living from the royalties of books sales and new freelancing opportunities. He went into a bit more detail about the specifics in a Reddit AMA:

How are you able to pay for your daily needs? Does HONY support you financially?

I’ve said publicly that I don’t want to “cash out” or “monetize” HONY. I like to say it publicly because I want my audience to keep me on mission. HONY print sales have raised nearly $500,000 for charity in the past six months. I want to further monetize the site for non-profit ventures. I honestly want to “give” HONY to New York in some way.

Freelancing and book royalties are keeping me afloat now. I get money for collaborations, occasional magazine pieces, occasional speeches, etc. And I signed two book deals which pay the rent. Also, I live cheaply.

2. Jeff Goins

Author and Blogger behind Goins, Writer

Two years ago, Jeff Goins quit his day job to pursue his passion for writing full-time.

He now has built a tribe of over 100,000 people, and has just launched his fourth book, The Art of Work.

This is all made possible by social media.

Jeff began writing on his blog, Goinswriter.com, and continued to work in his day job. He then began to earn more on his blog doing what he loved part-time than he was in his full-time job.

My blog (which accounted for less than 10 hours per week) was now contributing more income than my full-time job (which took up at least 40 hours per week).

His first product—a $2.99 ebook—earned $1,500 in its first week, convincing Jeff that his hobby could be a business.

His blog gave him a platform to follow his passion and do what he loves.

3. Grace Ciao

Fashion Designer and Artist

Grace Ciao is the ultimate accidental social media entrepreneur.

Since she was a little girl, Grace has had a passion for fashion design, and one day, she noticed a flower a boy had given her was dying. So Grace created a fashion illustration out of the petals of the flower.

She took a photo of her illustration and posted it on Instagram, which quickly became popular.

Grace earns a living as a full-time illustrator, and has used her platform to book engagements for events.

4. Michael and Carissa Alvarado

Husband and Wife Singers, Us The Duo

Michael and Carissa Alvarado were making music before they began posting 6-second videos on Vine, but nothing has skyrocketed their careers more than Vine has.

The couple was already trying to gain more traction on Youtube when they decided to put snippets of their covers on Vine, which served them well.

They now have 4.6 million Vine followers, and signed a record deal with Republic Records in 2014, allowing them to follow their passion by getting their start on social media.

5. Rosanna Pansino

Nerd and Baker at Nerdy Nummies

If you’ve ever thought the only way to pursue your passion for baking is by opening a bakery or through feeding your family, think again.

Rosanna Pansino built a career on social media centered around her love of baking when she was egged on by friends (pun intended) to start a Youtube channel.

Rosanna’s Youtube Channel, Nerdy Nummies has over 3.6 million subscribers.

6. Justin Halpern

Comedian from Sh!t My Dad Says

 Follow

Justin 

✔@shitmydadsays

"Don’t focus on the one guy who hates you. You don’t go to the park and set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog shit."

6:41 PM - 28 Jun 2010

 
•  21,21621,216 Retweets
 
•  7,7497,749 likes

Let me guess.

It seems as if every time you open Twitter, you’re instantly barraged with links to mediocre blog posts, pictures of people’s lattes and announcements of what the newest member of oversharers-anonymous is having for lunch that day.

You could never imagine Twitter as a platform to build a career, right?

Well, Justin Halpern did just that.

He took his comedy writing career to the next level by starting the popular Twitter account Sh!t My Dad Says, where he began to Tweet snippets of conversations with his father.

The Twitter account quickly gained traction and morphed into a television series and book.

7. Lain Ehmann

Scrapbooker and Blogger from Layout a Day

If you’ve ever felt as if your interests or hobbies were impossible to build a career from, you may be inspired by Lain Ehmann, who built her career from a blog about scrapbooking.

Yes, you read that right.

She’s built a six figure business around a niche that is traditionally a hobby niche, teaching others how to scrapbook and holding live online events through her blog.

The power of the internet allows us to connect with people who are interested in the things that we’re interested in, and if we can provide enough value to those people, Lain proves that lucrative careers can be built.

8. Shaun McBride

Artist and Snapchatter

Shaun McBride learned how to draw by looking at other artists’ drawings and trying his hand out at the craft.

After Snapchatting his drawing/photo mashups, he was featured on some popular websites, which boosted his career.

He now can make tens of thousands of dollars from one advertising deal with a brand through his Snapchat account, according to Forbes, and “several thousand dollars per image”.

9. Shawn Stevenson

Health Enthusiast of The Model Health Show

If text or images doesn’t interest you when it comes to building a career on social media, maybe audio does.

Shawn Stevenson runs the #1 health podcast on iTunes, the Model Health Show, allowing him to follow his passion for fitness and health through a different medium.

Instead of taking the traditional route of personal training, Shawn interviews guests on his podcast, creating content and giving listeners the tools to live healthy lives.

10. Lauren Bath

Traveller and Professional Instagrammer

Lauren Bath has arguably the best job in the world. Not only is she paid to Instagram, but she also gets paid to travel.

Lauren was the “first professional Instagrammer” of Australia, and quit her job as a chef to pursue her passions for photography and travel.

Lauren works with tourism boards and brands to provide exposure through her huge Instagram account to make a living.

While she doesn’t reveal her rates in interviews, she tells Successful Blogging that she works with brands such as Nikon and Tourism Boards to offer them sponsorships:

Well I can’t talk for others but for me I charge a base rate to travel away from home and that rate includes posting whatever images I like with all content available to the client.

11. Joey Korneman

Animator and Teacher from School of Motion

Joey Korneman is the founder of  School of Motion, where he teaches his students through online courses to animate using the principles of motion design.

Most of Joey’s traffic comes from Vimeo, as he tells Pat Flynn’s mastermind group in a recent episode of the Smart Passive Income Podcast.

He has 5,000 followers on Vimeo, which is high for that social media channel, and, as he tells Pat’s mastermind group, “Vimeo is very high-quality traffic for motion design”.

Joey makes a living teaching motion design by directing his Vimeo followers to his website, where he sells courses.

12. Mignon Fogarty

Grammarian and Podcaster at Grammar Girl

Passions come in all shapes and sizes, and Mignon Fogarty’s passion is unique.

Mignon has a passion for grammar, and works full time in the field by teaching grammar principles to her rabid fans of her Grammar Girl podcast.

Through social media, she has been able to build an amazing career around grammar, as she blogs as well.

13. Caitlin Turner

Yogi and Instagrammer GypsetGoddess

Caitlin’s passion for yoga has provided her with the unique opportunity to build an entire career from it – on Instagram.

Catlin’s Instagram account is still relatively new – about three years old – but she still has earned over 220,000 followers.

Caitlin told Yoganonymous that “Instagram has definitely been a huge career chance for me. It’s connected me professionally to different brands and people I wouldn’t have found before because I had no reason to. This is my career now.”

14. Brittany Furlan

Actress and Vine Comedian

Social media has helped people like Brittany Furlan launch comedic and acting careers in a way that was never possible before.

Brittany used Vine to launch her career in comedy and acting and now has 8.9 million followers on Vine.

Brittany told The Wrap that she makes a comfortable living through her Vines.

Those videos — which include a repertoire of outlandish characters (“Ghetto Dora De Explora“), quick-to-the-punchline sketches or pranks on the unsuspecting public — are worth between $7,000 and $20,000 to brands targeting Furlan’s massive audience.

She’s now gone on to partner with Seth Green to create a sketch show.

15. Liz Meghan

Youtuber and Makeup Artist

Liz Meghan had a passion for makeup, and she channeled that passion into Youtube.

With over 672,000 subscribers on her Youtube channel, Liz makes a living doing what she loves through makeup tutorials and sharing what she’s learned about makeup over the years.

Liz tells the Huffington Post that she makes a living off of her Youtube channel because Youtube pays her to put ads on her videos.

There’s no better time than now to do what you love

As these inspiring entrepreneurs demonstrate, by building a following online using social media, you can:

• Get paid to do what you love
• Establish yourself as an expert and
• Grow a following around your passions.

There’s no excuse to not get out there, pick a social media channel, and start posting.

Have you found success in building a career or a following on social media? Are you inspired by others who have taken this route to follow their dreams? I’d love to hear more about what you’ve experienced and learned in the comments.

Image sources: Pablo, Unsplash, IconFinder, Humansofnewyork.com, Art of Work Book, Ryanseacrest.com, Newmediarockstars.com, Shonduras.com, iTunes, Laurenbath.com,
Vimeo,  Gypsetgoddess.com, Thewrap.com, Youtube.com

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