Five social media mistakes you need to STOP making in 2024.

Critical errors to avoid for social media success this year.

The landscape of social media continues to evolve faster than an influencer can change outfits for a single post. Which presents us with both exciting opportunities to create content in new formats regularly and daunting challenges to stand out in front of all-day doom scrollers who have seen this, that and some more. As we try to understand and predict trends week after week, brands must learn to recognise what to hop on, and what bad practices to stay away from. Let’s take a look at five common social media mistakes that everyone needs to stop making in 2024. (Well, hopefully the contents of this article stays true till the end of 2024.) 

Not hero-ing short-form video content

In this era of Instagram Reels and Youtube Shorts, short-form video is the hottest currency of social media engagement right now. And brands that neglect to embrace this trend risk losing out on valuable opportunities to engage with followers. For example, in retail you could showcase quick styling tips or behind-the-scenes glimpses of upcoming arrivals. For a food brand, it could be cooking hacks, or recipe tutorials. A fitness influencer can use the format to show quick and easy workout routines, or short tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A tech company can create how-to videos or informational videos on key product features. The options are endless. It isn’t that difficult to hop on this trend. There are plenty of snackable templates you can borrow, and use them for entertaining, educational, and inspirational content. It doesn’t have to be all dance moves and person-to-camera content, you can use short-form videos to connect with your audience in meaningful ways. Leverage this bite-sized trend of mixing trending audio with informational and personalised content you’ll soon notice the increased engagement, brand awareness, and audience connection.

Prioritising vanity metrics 

In the simplest terms possible, a vanity metric is a measurement that looks good on paper but doesn’t necessarily reflect the true health or growth of a business. It’s an analytics term for what that can be measured but is not a real representation of actual return on investment. Like number of followers, likes or comments instead of looking at click-through rates or customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, etc. 

It’s easy to fall prey to these metrics, as they seem to validate our efforts. But it can be dangerous for business owners and agency owners because they give a false sense of accomplishment and don’t provide meaningful insights that can inform business decisions.This is the year to break free from these superficial number games and focus on what really matters: meaningful engagement and real-world impact. Look at metrics that align with your business objectives - such as generating leads, increasing conversions and other actionable insights and tangible outcomes that provide long-term benefit to your company.

Overlooking the value of micro-influencers

Yes, the A-lister influencers have dominated the social media industry in the last couple of years, but 2024 is predicted to celebrate the rise of the micro-influencer. It’s all about the niche following, the intimate engagement, and authentic relatable content. Not to mention the cost-effectiveness factor too. Apart from niche audience reach and authenticity, the real winner is the higher engagement rates. Their smaller, more niche audiences are often more actively engaged and responsive, resulting in higher levels of interaction, likes, comments, and shares, even on sponsored content.

 So shift your focus towards building honest friendships with micro-influencers who can authentically represent your brand and relate to your target audience on a deeper level. 

Not leveraging user-generated content

Real customers, authentic content. There’s no logical reason to avoid sharing user-generated content in 2024. It’s a goldmine of social proof, compelling material that can make your brand look good while building loyalty and driving engagement. This isn’t just best practice, it’s a necessary tool that you cannot afford to miss. 

Social media users are increasingly looking at peer recommendations, and there’s nothing like an honest demonstration of real-world usage of your product or service to increase brand love. By neglecting to share UGC, you miss out on an opportunity to create mini brand-ambassadors out of your loyal customers who are eager to share their positive experiences with your brand. They can help amplify your brand’s message and foster a sense of community and belonging. So, don’t overlook this powerful army of advocates who could be championing your brand on social media.

Not budgeting for amplification

Not to take away anything from the value of quality content and organic growth, but paid-promotion plays just as crucial a role in growing your brand. Put simply, great content isn’t great content if the right people aren’t seeing it. Using paid promotions is not just about reaching the right people, it’s an investment to understand your audience better and arrive at a content plan that goes hand-in-hand with a sustainable growth plan. By investing in paid promotions, you can bypass the limitations of organic reach and ensure their message cuts through the noise to reach your target audience effectively. And the data gathered from paid campaigns provides invaluable insights into audience demographics, preferences, and engagement patterns, empowering brands to refine their content strategy and tailor their messaging for maximum impact. Allocating a modest budget to boost posts can be the catalyst for reading a broader audience and gathering valuable insights to hone your content strategy.

Now you are set to propel your brand to new heights in 2024!

If you have been guilty of making these mistakes in the past, that’s alright. Just leave them in the past and work towards building a stronger content plan for 2024. One that is packed with more social listening, and lesser obsession over vanity metrics. Here’s to a year marked by authentic connections, captivating content and infinite possibilities of growth across social media platforms. While saying that, here’s a bonus point to avoid this year: Needing to be present on every social media platform. That’s a big nope-ty nope. Choose and pick the platforms that serve your larger objectives. But more on that later.