As full-time content creators, we have spend years learning all about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to growing your presence on social media platforms such as platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. In this post we’ll share some common mistakes that may be holding you back from achieving your social media goals, and we’ll do our best to help you overcome them.

Consistency is vital for building a strong social media presence and probably the most important factor for long term success. When you post regularly, your followers are more likely to engage with and recognise your content, keeping you at the front of their mind. Depending on the platform, and especially when you are starting a new account, you should probably try to post every day if possible, but at the very least you should be posting several times per week.

If you find yourself struggling, try creating a content calendar to help you stay organized and plan ahead. It’s also important to be consistent with your branding, and style of your content, so that you are easily recognisable to your audience and hopefully stand out.

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Interacting with your followers is an essential step to building a loyal and engaged community, so you should always aim to respond to as many comments and messages as possible. You could encourage engagement by asking questions in your captions, regularly updating your Stories or even hosting live streams to interact directly with your audience. By taking the time to interact with your followers in a meaningful way, it shows that you value their opinions and appreciate their support, allowing you to build better trust and relationships.

While it’s natural to want to see your follower count and engagement grow, and of course this is important, try not to get too fixated on the numbers, because most of the time the quality of the engagement is infinitely more important. Instead, focus on actually creating content that is high quality and high value, and use your analytics as a tool to help you identify what is working for you over time. Just don’t sacrifice quality or authenticity for the sake of chasing numbers – it will only hurt you in the long run!

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Each social media platform has its own unique features and best practices and to get the most out of your content, therefore, you need to optimizing it for each individual platform. For example, on Instagram and TikTok using relevant tags and trending audio can help you reach a wider audience, but on YouTube, you’ll want to put more focus into creating eye-catching thumbnails and titles that encourage viewers to click through to your content.

For commercial posting and an easier way to cross-post to every platform, consider using a music licensing platform like Epidemic Sound. They have a massive library of music and SFX with categories to help you find exactly what you need for every post and project, without having to worry about copyright – and you try it out for free!

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While it’s important to be able to promote your products or services, you don’t want to come across as too pushy or salesy, as if that is your only motivation. Nobody comes to social media to see the ads! Instead, focus on building trust and meaningful relationships with your audience, while providing value directly through your content. It could be with education or entertainment and this way, when when you do promote your products it will feel more natural and authentic, rather than like a hard sell.

Studying your social media and webpage analytics is one of the best ways you can tell exactly what’s working and what’s not. By monitoring those metrics, you can identify which types of content performs well for you, which days and times are best for posting, and which sources are driving the most traffic to your website, use this information to refine your content strategy and optimise your performance over time.

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It can be tempting to jump on every trend and copy the content that seems to be going viral, but it’s important to remember that it isn’t beneficial to gain large numbers of followers from content that you don’t plan to continue making long term.

Not every trend will be a good fit for your existing audience, and jumping on the wrong trends may turn off your followers as it can make your content appear inauthentic, inconsistent and ultimately hurting your long-term growth. It can also take away from the time and energy you could be spending on creating original and high-quality content that truly resonates with your audience.

So, while it’s important to keep with the latest trending content, it’s equally important to carefully consider whether a trends aligns with your brand values and audience before jumping on board.

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Collaborating with other brands, creators or influencers can be a great way to expand your reach to a wider audience and gain new followers. Engage within any relevant communities and pages, and look for opportunities to work with others who share your values or target audience.

You could collaborate on content together, participate in joint campaigns, or even host events together. Collaborations like this can not only help you tap into new audiences, you will also find opportunities to build long-term relationships and learn from others others within your niche.

Social media success certainly doesn’t happen overnight (not for most of us anyway!), but by avoiding these common mistakes and focusing on building a strong, authentic social media presence, over time you will be able to attract more followers and grow your presence and influence within the space.

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