FIVE MISTAKES TO AVOID ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Planning your social media content isn't just about filling a calendar; it's about creating purposeful, engaging content that supports your brand goals and connects you with your audience. But even with the best intentions, it's easy to fall into common traps that can stall your growth, lower engagement, or lead to burnout.

Whether you are a solo entrepreneur, a small business owner, or a part of a growing marketing team, avoiding these missteps can help save you time, stay focused, and see better results from your efforts.

Here are five of the most common mistakes to watch for, and what to do instead.

1. Not Defining Clear Goals

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when planning content is jumping straight into creating mode without considering why they're posting in the first place. Without a clear goal, your content lacks direction and a way to measure success.

Are you looking to increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to a landing page? Generate leads? Build community? Each goal requires a unique content approach, tone, and format.

When goals aren't defined:

• Content creation is more challenging and inconsistent

• Your content can feel disconnected

• You miss out on opportunities to connect

• Difficult to evaluate performance or ROI

What to do instead:

Set goals and align your content with your overarching marketing objectives. A simple way to do this is by using SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

2. Making It All About You

Social media is not a billboard. While it's important to highlight your offerings, a feed that is only centred around your business, your wins, your features, your news, can feel disconnected from your audience's interests.

This mistake often looks like:

• Posts that use "we" and "our" more than "you"

• Talking at your audience instead of inviting them into conversation

• Content that assumes the viewer already understands your brand value

What to do instead:

Shift your messaging from business-first to audience-first. Speak directly to your audience's challenges, needs, and desires. Ask:

• What do they care about?

• What problems can I help them solve?

• How can I make them feel seen, understood, or inspired?

When you make your audience the hero of your content, engagement and trust naturally follow.

3. Focusing Only On Promotion

It's tempting to use your feed as a sales channel, after all, you're running a business. But constant self-promotion can lead to audience fatigue. If your followers feel like they're always being sold to, they'll stop listening.

Symptoms of over-promotion:

• Low engagement on product- or service-heavy posts

• Unfollows after promotional campaigns

• Lack of community interaction or conversation

What to do instead:

Think of social media as a relationship-building tool, not just a sales platform.

Create a content mix that includes:

• Educational content (how-tos, tips, industry insights)

• Entertaining or relatable posts

• Behind-the-scenes 'sneak peeks'

• Community features or testimonials

• Thoughtful calls to action (not always sales-focused)

Follow the 80/20 rule: 80% value-driven content, 20% promotion. When people trust you and find value in what you share, they're more likely to buy when you do promote.

4. Not Reviewing Performance Metrics

You can post beautiful, high-effort content– but without tracking performance, how do you know what's working?

Neglecting analytics leads to:

• Repeating content that underperforms

• Missing trends in audience behaviour

• Wasting time on platforms or content types that don't convert

What to do instead: Identify which key performance indicators (KPIs) align with your goals. These might include:

• Engagement rate

• Reach or impressions

• Website clicks

• Saves and shares

• Conversion rates from link-in-bio tools or landing pages.

Using insights from platforms like Instagram, Meta Business Suite, HeyOrca, or Google Analytics to spot trends and guide your future content strategy. Look for patterns, not just numbers, and iterate accordingly.

5. Not Repurposing Content

Creating new content from scratch every time is not only exhausting, it's unnecessary. Many businesses miss the opportunity to extend the life and reach of their best ideas.

Signs you're underutilizing content:

• Limiting the reach of your message by posting once and never revisiting

• Letting high-performance posts collect dust

• Not tailoring content across platforms

What to do instead:

Build content repurposing into your strategy from the start. For example:

• Turn a long-form blog post into 3-5 carousels or videos

• Use customer testimonials in stories, graphics, and newsletters

• Rework captions from older high-performing posts with updated visuals

• Reshare tips every few months with a fresh hook

Repurposing doesn't mean repeating, it means reimagining content in new formats for different touch points to amplify the impact of your message.

Plan With Purpose, Post With Confidence

Avoiding these five common mistakes can dramatically improve how your content performs and how your audience connects with your brand. Social media isn't just about staying visible; it's about showing up with intention, clarity, and value.

By setting clear goals, focusing on your audience, diversifying your content, reviewing performance data, and repurposing strategically, you can build a social media presence that actually works for your business, not just fills your feed.

Whether you're just getting started or refining your existing strategy, the key is to plan smarter, not harder.

Need help bringing clarity and consistency to your content plan?

Let's talk – we'd love to support you in building a strategy that aligns with your goals and grows your brand!