9 Common Mistakes Wedding Professionals Make On Social Media

If you’re active on social media and you’re not seeing any results, it’s likely you’re making one of these 9 common social media mistakes. These mistakes are all too common and I see wedding professionals making them on almost a daily basis. You can avoid them though and if you’re making any of them, all you have to do is make a few shifts and get back on the social media horse.

1. You’re acting in a way that would make you annoying real life

Social media is a lot like an online cocktail party and a lot of people don’t conduct themselves like they would offline and that’s a huge mistake. Would you walk into a party and shout “DATES ARE FILLING UP – BOOK ME NOW FOR YOUR 2016 WEDDING!”? I certainly hope not! If you wouldn’t say it in real life, don’t broadcast it across your social media accounts.

2. You’re talking AT people instead of to them

I think many wedding professionals have forgotten that social media is meant to be, you know, social. Instead they use it as some sort of megaphone tied to the roof of their car Blues Brothers style and just shout promotional messages at their followers. Social media is not about you and talking AT people is not going to do anything for you. Social media is about making genuine connections and building relationships with people.

3. You’re not listening or having actual conversations

Instead of talking at people, ask them questions and listen to the answers. You’ll learn so much about your ideal clients by having conversations with them on social media and listening to them. You can actually search anything on Twitter and set up a stream in Hootsuite for that search.

For instance, you could set up a stream for tweets containing “wedding planner” or “wedding stress” to see what your potential clients are saying when they think no one is watching. It’s going to be different than what they say to you directly and it will help you understand and market to them better!

4. You have unrealistic expectations

Many people think that social media is this magic pill that’s going to magically transform your business and make you rich. It’s not. It’s a tool and like any other tool your results are going to depend on how you use it.

I use social media to drive people to my blog posts & podcasts, get them to sign up for my email list and learn about my followers through conversation & listening. Because I use social media in a way that leads people down the road to eventually working with me, I get results from it and you can too.

5. You’re not being yourself

A lot of people struggle to be themselves online and in their business but it is SO important. People do business with people that they know, like and trust and they can’t get to know, like or trust you if you hide your personality. Social media is an amazing place to be yourself and speak like you would if you were speaking to a friend. Give being real with your followers a try – you’ll be impressed with the results!

6. Only sharing content once

Let’s say you wrote this amazing blog post and you publish it and share it on social media. You’re done right? Nope! Only sharing that blog post (or any piece of content) once is guaranteeing that only a tiny fraction of your followers are going to see it. Think about it, they’d have to be on that social platform at that exact moment and happen to see it and click on it. Not likely. If you are creating great blog content (and you should be) share it and share it often! I use a tool called Edgar to do this for me and it cycles through my previous posts to make sure they don’t die a slow and lonely death in the archives.

7. You’re not delivering any value

Based on what you’re currently sharing on social media – would you follow you? Why should anyone follow you? A big part of marketing is putting yourself in your potential client’s shoes so what would make them want to follow you? You are an expert so make sure you’re delivering value in your social media posts by giving them a tip or some inspiration! Not sure what to say on social media? Here are some ideas for you!

8. You’re not being consistent

Consistency is one of the most important ingredients in effective marketing and when you go dark on your social media accounts then pop back up over and over it looks bad. It looks like you don’t take your business seriously and can make a potential client wonder if you can’t keep up with your business tasks, how can you be trusted with their wedding?

I get it, you’re busy! That’s why I’m a big fan of using tools to help you save time. You don’t have to do it manually and you don’t have to be on social media all the time in order to be consistent!

9. You’re freaking out about the numbers

Yes, Facebook reach is down and while that sucks, we all got a good free ride for awhile. Now, you either need to run Facebook ads or earn your reach by getting your fans to engage with you. Your Facebook reach is not likely going to make or break your business and if it is then that’s even more of a reason to build an email list like I teach people to in Book More Weddings Academy. The same goes for follower numbers. The point of social media is not to collect as many followers as possible – it’s not Pokémon.

Instead, focus on how you can use social media to reach your goals and measure that. That likely means measuring traffic from different social networks in your Google Analytics.

Have you made any of these mistakes? We all make mistakes – all that matters is that you learn from them and improve.

Do you know someone currently making these mistakes? Share this with them to help them!