5 Mistakes To Avoid when Marketing Your Business on Social Media

I know a lot of you reading this are on social media and likely have a significant following with your networks.

But I also know that many of you who are business owners are not actually leveraging your network to organically reach a greater audience to grow your business.

Last week I created a post on Linkedin about the Top 3 Necessities for Solopreneurs who want to Market & Sell Through Social Media Networking.

This Week, I want to share the top 5 mistakes to avoid when marketing your business with your social media networks.

The first one may seem so simple, yet a lot of you are forgetting it. You're only using your social networks to share your life with people, maybe take some photos of your vacation or share your ideas with the world. But guess what the number one mistake is:

1. Not letting your people know what your business is. You've got to make sure your website and any of your business pages are linked to your social media page, and you've got to talk about what you do in the 'about' sections of your social networks. You also want to mention every so often what you are up to in your business. If you're not letting people know that you own a business, how can they hire you? I know for some professionals, like therapists, you want to be very careful about talking about your work outside of specific marketing channels. But you can still share your expertise while being professional and not giving away any confidential information.

2. Inconsistency in your messaging is the second mistake you want to avoid, because when you are all over the place with what you talk about, people are not going to know what you specialize in and it's just another way to confuse people about your expertise. The clearer you can get about the difference you want to make in the world, who you want to help, and why you are here to help them, the more consistent your message will be, and the easier it will be to receive referrals from within your social networks for paying clients. You can talk about a lot of different subjects, and still be consistent by understanding why you do what you do, and tying all of your content back to that.

3. You're not making offers. If you're spending a bunch of time online, using your social networks to consume other people's content, to post really great samples of your writing, or share with the world how fun and awesome your life is...but in the end you're not offering people a way to work with you...you're likely wasting a lot of precious time that could be leveraged toward marketing and sales for your business. Doing what you do naturally is great, so just pop an offer in at the end of your post, and you'll be on your way to making more money! I'm not saying go willy nilly and post offers everywhere or every time you comment on something...I'm just saying, don't forget that you need to offer something every once in a while. If you don't make offers, you will not be getting any business on social.

4. You're not inviting your social media community to be on your email list. This one is a bit tricky, because while you're promoting yourself on social media you sometimes forget the importance of growing your audience in other capacities. The hard truth is that if you're not sending people over to your email list, then you need to start doing that asap. All business experts will tell you that social media networks are constantly changing. We never know what will happen with Facebook's algorithms, and we can't really have any control over who will see our content on social media. So just make sure that every so often you are leading people over to your email list, through offering a free email opt-in where they can get something from you in exchange for providing their email address.

5. Your attitude is incongruent with success. This one is the most important of all! Remember, that in order to have success, you must never give up. You need to stay consistent and let things grow over time. Know that people WILL decide to work with you, but it takes nurturing. Some things you may try and they won't work out. But remember to keep going and keep learning. You must learn to take your failures as opportunities to evaluate what is working and what is not. Keep your eyes, thoughts, and heart moving forward toward your desired goal to grow and sustain your audience and thus, your business. Having a winning attitude will make or break whether you give up, or whether you steer your life and your goals to the finish line and beyond what you could ever expect!

If social media marketing is something that you'd like to incorporate more of in your business, then please join our course, Intentional Social Media staring this Thursday, October 31st.

I look forward to teaching you the best ways to use social media to grow your audience, and help you break through what is holding you back from scaling your business to where you want it to go!