3 Social Media Mistakes That Turn Audiences Off

Are you getting engagement from your fans and followers on social media?

A lot of businesses have a hard time getting a response from people on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Getting followers is hard enough in itself, but even if you have them, you may have posts and tweets sitting there with hardly any interaction at all from your audience.

If you're struggling to make a connection, it's possible you might be doing something that's turning people off.

Businesses can end up “trying too hard” to appeal to people, and end up looking foolish as a result.

Old, misused memes are an example of this. So is using way too many hashtags.

You might also need to reevaluate your social media content strategy.

If you're half-halfheartedly syndicating the same content across different platforms, you may have trouble keeping people interested.

It's pretty common to syndicate like that, but different platforms require different styles of content to be effective.

In a recent blog post, Hootsuite explains three of the most common mistakes marketers make.

Using too many hashtags

Because hashtags will make your content more easily discoverable on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, social media users sometimes use them excessively.

Why you should stop doing this: Too many hashtags can make you look spammy or desperate if you’re using ones that aren’t relevant to your post.

Even if you gain followers, it’s often the wrong kind of follower—like bots or people only interested in being followed back.

What you can do instead: Focus instead on being deliberate when it comes to choosing hashtags.

A good rule of thumb: don’t have more hashtags than words. Have your followers focus on what you’re saying instead what you’re hashtagging.

Publishing the same message across all platforms

We get it, social marketers are busy and need to save time wherever they can. But don’t do push out the exact same message on every channel.

Why you should stop doing this:

Not every platform supports the same kind of content—Twitter supports hashtags but LinkedIn does not. And of course, different audiences live on different social networks.

Even for your fans that are following you on multiple networks—imagine how strange it is to see the same message over and over again?

What you can do instead:

At Hootsuite, our social team uses a distributed content strategy, which is about creating unique content for each platform.

This ensures we are delivering the kind of content that resonates with a specific audience to ensure maximum engagement.

Sending automated thank-you messages

There was a time when an automated message was a nice and easy way to make your followers feel special.

Why you should stop doing this:

An automated message can come off as impersonal—it’s like being subscribed to a broadcast messaging list nobody asked for.

Plus, nobody likes talking to a robot. If they did, why hire someone to manage your brand’s social media handle?

What you can do instead:

Take some extra time to dig a little deeper into your new follower’s social media profile. See if you share anything in common or if there’s something to connect with.

You can learn more about common mistakes people make on social media at Hootsuite.