Are you making any of these 10 social media marketing mistakes? If you are, its severely harming time management. When marketing on social media, time is of the essence. If you waste time making social media marketing mistakes like these, you miss out on so many other opportunities that you could be focusing on to improve your brand’s or business position in the market. In this article, I’ll show you the 10 mistakes people are commonly making in social media marketing and steps you can take to overcome them.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 1: Not Building Communities

Content is King. Engagement is Queen. But COMMUNITY is the Kingdom that holds everything in place. Social media platforms work against people who try to get their users off their platforms. If you post external links, those links get viewed less. If you post TikTok posts as Instagram reels, those reels get less views per the algorithms.

Instead of cross posting the same content on every social media page, you need to work on building a unique community on each one. You can use the content (not TikTok for IG reels, though) but it needs to be uniquely submitted to each platform as genuine. Try to find a way to use each platform for something different which will lure followers to want to be a part of each social page you have.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 2: Overusing Hashtags

There are no social media platforms that warrant 30 hashtags. None. Even Instagram recently said 3 to 5 is all you should be using and that 10 or 20 hashtags does nothing to further help your growth. You will waste so much precious time trying to research 30 hashtags. Most social platforms don’t need more than 1 to 3 hashtags per post. Even YouTube has said that their tag system should be used for common misspelling of names and that overusing it will do minimal for your reach.

Instead of making this big-time wasting mistake, choose 1 to 3 hashtags that explain what people are seeing with your content. Use hashtags that aren’t too competitive. A hashtag with 3 million posts is a lot more competitive and harder to rank in than a hashtag with 100,000 posts. Don’t waste too much time on hashtags because Artificial Intelligence in algorithms is starting to really phase out the need for hashtag use.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 3: Too Much SEO

As I mentioned, AI is expanding and tradition SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and marketing tactics are being phased out. Machine learning will learn what the real human wants, especially those who spend money and it will adjust content for them. So, if you’re spending too much time researching keywords and placing them, you might be wasting time in the process.

Instead, choose a title that is real and relates to the human reader. If you are still going to rank for a keyword or key phrase, just don’t go overboard about it. Maybe mention it in the description and provide a matching hashtag for it. But definitely don’t do SEO in a way that you’ll make the next mistake down.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 4: Writing For Robots

Too many people, especially old schoolers, are making this mistake. Don’t write for robots because robots are being replaced by systems. Artificial Intelligence is smarter than ever, and it will detect that you’re trying to trick the system and thus lower your ranking in the process. Don’t feel like you need so do so much SEO stuff that you no longer are writing for human beings. The robots and the algorithms are not the ones subscribing, following, or buying from you.

Write for humans and humans only. People need to wake up and realize what AI is going to do for the internet. Google, YouTube, and all these social networks are telling you this to get you in a habit of not doing it. The Web is changing and if you don’t get on board, you get left behind. When you submit content, ignore algorithms and keep your following in mind because that’s who is clicking your CTAs and getting you that ROI.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 5: Inconsistency

Everyone asks, how many times should I post? Once a day? 18 times a day? Once a week? What is that magic number? There is none. Whatever amount you decide to post should be based on your ability to do so. This is because there is one significant trick here that a lot of creators’ neglect, CONSISTENCY. Being consistent is way more important than quantity.

No matter how many times you decide to post, you need to focus on being consistent about it. That will essentially give you that magic number. If you post 18 times a day, can you do it every day because you need to remain consistent about it. These algorithms and Ais are looking at your consistency and that is helping them determine when to show your content.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 6: Poor Engagement (Internal)

One of the worst social media marketing mistakes has to be poor engagement. Too many people are posting content and then not visiting again until it is time to post more content. You post content and then the community starts responding, asking questions, and looking to engage with you. But you’re nowhere to be found. So that engagement party leaves your posts and find something else. That tells the social media AI that your content doesn’t keep hold a good retention rate and you get a lower rank.

Instead of posting and running – you should focus on engaging visitors who are commenting. Reply to every comment, especially when your pages have a lower following. If you respond to everyone, they will likely come back and read your response. Some might reply back, most will just hit like. But if you respond with a question and keep questioning, you might start to get some serious engagement on your content and that is what makes your social media stand out and rapidly grow.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 7: Poor Engagement (External)

External social engagement mistakes are being made as well. This is you not involving yourself with the community outside of your pages. There are other pages, groups, chats, videos, comment sections, live events, and online communities full of potential followers of your content. If you’re not out there trying to win them over, you’re failing at social media marketing.

Instead of just hanging out on your pages, get out there in the community. Make yourself really known as an expert in your niche market. Be friendly and be easy to make friends with. Be really super active in the communities and people will flock to your social pages. Social media is all about being social in the end. If you’re anti-social, don’t expect to grow that well.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 8: Not Following 80/20 Rule

Are you posting links on your social pages and not getting results? Are your competitors posting links and getting results but not you? It’s okay, a lot of social media creators make this common mistake. See, social media platforms don’t want people to leave their platforms because if they leave, they’re not clicking on ads which pays the platform the money needed to stay online. So, posting links to another website away from the platform isn’t placed in that much of an important pool for views by social media. But what can you do about it?

You can embrace it because it’s staying like that and just focus on creating a community with your social page that will accompany any external website or community you have as well. You should follow the successful strategy of 80/20. This means that 80% of your content should be internal and 20% of your content should be external. So, 80% is everything community whether its photo uploads, native video, memes, humor, posts, and events that take place on the platform (live, etc.). Then, the other 20% is links to your website or blog. You’ll notice a successful change if you do that.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 9: New Feature Avoidance

Social platforms are always releasing new features to compete with other platforms. When they release these new features, they often put a significant viewing benefit for those who use them to help get it off the ground. Some networks even pay members to use them like YouTube does with Shorts. Many social media creators make the mistake of not using these new features because they don’t like change, or they don’t think it will last. This is a BIG mistake on the part of creators.

Any time a social media platform releases a new feature – you should immediately jump on it. By using a new feature early, you have a better chance of going viral while less people are using it. It is your chance to have significant growth while the feature is maturing. These platforms want us to use these features and they reward us for doing so. Don’t let an opportunity like that pass you by. Don’t miss your chance to actually get a head start in something.

Social Media Marketing Mistakes 10: Not Learning More

This in my opinion is the biggest mistake social creators make, they quit learning. They focus on their community and quit other communities. They don’t pay attention to industry news or changes. They are often late to the party on innovating things. They don’t know everything or the stuff they should know. They get into this security blanket of not wanting to try new things and they miss a ton of opportunities to grow in their industries. Don’t make the mistake of being one of these failing creators.

Instead, keep learning! Find and follow role models. Go to conferences and events. Buy the latest books and watch YouTube videos. Try to learn something new about your niche each day whether its for 5-minutes or 4-hours. Follow trends. Research innovation. Keep up to date with the news of your niche market and stay ahead of the game. Learning never stops, ever. You can never be a 100% expert at anything because everything is always changing.

And there it is, 10 common social media marketing mistakes that is wasting your time management. Don’t do these mistakes and your life as a creator will be so much easier. And don’t feel bad if you do make these mistakes, even I made these mistakes which is why I want to teach others from the stuff I learned. Remember, not learning is the biggest mistake. Thank you for reading this article – please consider sharing it with others.