By Emily Crawford – Content Specialist, Learn to Flourish

Social media is king these days, right? To be honest, it’s been king for quite a while, but there’s so much constantly changing with algorithms, trends, and platforms, it’s almost impossible to keep up! That’s why I’ve put together a short list of a few things NOT to do in your social media strategy! 

 

1. The number one social media “sin” I see businesses doing is not utilizing hashtags! 

Hashtags are vital to the success of your social media strategy, and yet I still see business pages posting every day with absolutely no hashtags in sight. So let’s talk about hashtags really quickly! Hashtags are ways for your audience to search out relevant content, so if you’re using hashtags they need to reference your actual material. It may seem like a great idea to use whatever hashtag is trending this week, but Instagram especially has its algorithm tweaked specifically to punish your post if you’re just using popular hashtags that have no relevance to your material. 

Along with using relevant hashtags, most people agree that using hashtags with less than 1 million posts may help your post gain more visibility! If the hashtag you’re using has more than a million posts, it’s probably just going to get lost in the shuffle of posts by influencers with a larger following, AND you’re more likely to get spammed by bot accounts.  

The number of hashtags you use may result in a difference in the number of views you receive. Instagram allows 30 hashtags, I like using all of them, but some people have had this result in their account being shadow banned. A good, general rule of thumb is to switch up the number of hashtags you’re using, but I would recommend having 20-25 hashtags to get the max amount of views possible! 

Most of these hashtag tips apply most specifically to Instagram, since that’s where hashtags gained their popularity as a search tool, but platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn are developing their hashtag system to be very similar.

 

2. Another pet peeve of mine is when I see people using the same graphic for every single social media platform they’re on.

 For example, Instagram has three different sizes it really supports in the grid, my favorite being 1080x1080px. However, this size would be clunky and awkward on Pinterest. Be aware of the platform you’re using, and create the appropriately sized images. This changes so much I’m not going to give you specifics for every platform, because in a month it’ll probably be different! So just pay attention to the platform you’re using, and honestly, whatever you pick, stick with it! I’ll mention this later but consistency is one of the most important social media tools.

 

3. Stop adding people to your group without asking! 

I’m looking at you, direct marketers! This happens on Facebook obviously, and it happens so much! If you’re adding people to your Facebook group without asking if it’s something they want to be a part of, you’re going to annoy them, potentially discourage them from your product, and honestly, miss out on an opportunity to let them know what you’re doing with this line of work! And I’m tired of leaving groups I never asked to be in, so this “sin” may be seated primarily in self-preservation, but for real, stop. We’re all tired of this situation, I promise. 

 

4. I mentioned this earlier, but not posting consistently is arguably the biggest social media “sin” you’re doing! 

I know social media can be a time suck, and you don’t want to spam your followers with content that you don’t feel is your best content. My suggestion for this is to batch your social media. I guarantee you have a bunch of great images on your camera roll that your audience would love to see, so take a couple of hours, batch out content that’s relevant to your business, and stop worrying about it! 

There are a plethora of different scheduling tools out there to help save you from having to post manually every single day. My personal favorite and most budget-friendly is Buffer, which posts to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. The one out there with the most bells, whistles, and growth is Tailwind. Check them out, see what fits your style most accurately, and watch your interaction explode with your new consistent strategy! 

 

5. The final “sin” is not using video in your social strategy!

With IGTV, Youtube, and Facebook Live being huge for business owners, and apps like Snapchat and Tik Tok growing with millennials and teens, making a point to use video in your social media strategy is going to be a huge benefit to you! 

I LOVE sproutsocial.com for relevant social media tips, here’s what they have to say about video in social media: 

“In the past three years, video views have increased by over 99% on YouTube and 258% on Facebook. A Tweet containing a video is 6x more likely to be retweeted than a Tweet with a photo or just text.”

If video makes you nervous, Learn to Flourish has a TON of great content to help you become more confident and polished in your video creation! Check out this Learn to Flourish article (https://www.learntoflourish.com/video-studio-setup-for-beginners/) today! Here’s an example of the types of video they create and teach others to create through Learn to Flourish Academy classes. 

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

 

Example 4:

I hope that you learned something to put into play with your social media strategy! If you have any tips of your own, head on over to Learn to Flourish’s Facebook page and share them in the comments of our latest post! 

Wishing you inspiration, innovation, and continuous learning!