by Carrie Bobb
Trying to grow a business on social media is not as simple as I thought. It often felt like I was doing it wrong, but I didn’t really know how to do it right. Much of what I’ve learned is from the mistakes I have made along the way.
So I am sharing with you the top 5 mistakes I made while growing
my business on social media to help save you some time and frustration. My hopes
are you can avoid these all together or at least learn and grow from them much
faster than I did.
1. POSTING TOO MUCH OR NOT ENOUGH.
I had heard that posting everyday was the way to grow. I do think that’s true. However, it only works if the content quality is high. Posting for the sake of posting never works. Consistency is extremely important. Starting with 2 posts a week that are based on really good content is way better than posting every day. The more you get into a rhythm, the easier it will become. Be consistent and bring good content
2. NOT SCHEDULING POSTS.
Posting on the fly is the worst. I was trying to be consistent and would randomly post, but it caused anxiety. Using a scheduling app like @latermedia or @planoly helps you program your content and visually see your feed in advance. We shoot to have our feeds programmed 30 days in advance and work out the details and captions a week in advance. It requires some time planning, but it is way better than scrambling. The quality is much higher as well.
3. NOT LISTENING TO MY AUDIENCE.
It took me way too long to learn how to read the Instagram Insights and Analytics. By understanding what is registering with our audience, we can give people more of what they want from us. We read the insights on every single post and understand how people are interacting with our feed. It determines how we build it.
4. DO ALL THE THINGS.
I tried to understand video, stories, programming, hashtag strategies, insights and analytics, user generated content all at the same time. Growing a business on social media is like baking a cake. You need all the ingredients, but how they mix together is extremely important. And they are kind of like layers. Take time to understand the different nuances and let them build on each other. Cut yourself some slack and focus on one thing at a time and build it right.
5. FOCUSING ON THE NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS.
It is a classic rookie mistake. A large sphere of influence is awesome! And I want that too, but it is more important to have a smaller following of the right people than a large following of the wrong audience. The engagement rate matters far more than the number of followers. The average engagement rate on an Instagram account is 4.7%. You can calculate your engagement rate on a post by adding the number of likes and number of comments and dividing that number by the total number of followers. Having a lot of followers, but no engagement is like talking to ourself. The time and effort put into growing on social is only as significant as our impact.
Carrie is the founder and CEO of Carrie Bobb & Co. She is a consumer behavior analytics nerd and an expert at driving revenue for retail properties through digital and brick and mortar leasing strategies.
Carrie has closed over $2 billion in total consideration throughout her career. She has completed transactions with brands such as Sephora, SoulCycle, Drybar, Fox Restaurant Concepts, Restoration Hardware and many others. She has implemented leasing strategies through social media and online influencer programming on several projects. She was named one of San Diego’s Power Women in Real Estate and received her MBA from the University of San Diego. Carrie lives in San Diego with her husband, Matt, their three inquisitively adventurous kids and one joyful golden doodle.