The 7 Sins That Hurt Your Visibility

Sin #1: Sell, Sell, Sell

When it comes to social media posts, one of the biggest mistake small business owners often make is that they are selling their products and services in every single post. Yes, our ultimate goal to be visible out there is to make sales.  But your audience don’t come to social media platform to buy. Pushing your product or service out in every single post only makes you look desperate and driving people away. Instead, do include contents that your audience are interested in seeing that are related to your products and services and contents that add value.

Sin #2: Being Impersonal

Many business owners prefer to fill up their social media account with lovely graphics, stock images, quotes or pictures of their products. But consumers nowadays based their buying decision on relations, on stories. It’s all about gaining the know, like and trust from your audience. Being impersonal and hiding behind your business won’t allow you to build relation with your prospective customers. So do start showing up as the face of your business, get personal and share your stories.

Sin #3: Professional Photography is a Luxury!

Social Media Platforms are incredibly crowded spaces with so many individuals and businesses big and small fighting for attention. What doesn’t really help is that our prospective customers (including yourself by the way) all have attention span shorter than a goldfish! Using poor imagery such as amateurish DIY photos and stock images for all your marketing is not going to help you being seen. Professional brand photography on the other hand helps you standout from the crowd and capture your audience attention fast. It is an essential business investment, not a luxury! Not ready to invest in professional brand photography? Make sure you know how to take scroll-stopping photos with your phone camera then.

Sin #4: Post and Run

When it comes to marketing your business on social media platform, if you think posting something online = visible, then think again.   As the name social media platform suggests, you must BE SOCIAL.   Simply posting and not engaging with your audience will not grow your visibility.  The algorithm of social media platforms are designed to reward those who actively engage with others.  So if you want to be seen by more people, you must invest time in engaging with your audience, not just post and run!

Sin #5: Chasing Followers!

Many small business owners believe more followers = more visible.  Again, when it comes to social media platform, it’s not the number of followings that matters.  It’s about the number of engagement. In fact, the more followers you have with the same number of engagement means you’ll have a lower engagement rate, which in turns will hurt your visibility according to the algorithm.  So if you are increasing followers, then you must also up your engagement game.

Another important point you must consider is quality over quantity.   Being visible in business is not just to be in front of as many people as possible.  It’s about being in front of the “right” kind of people, more specifically, the people who are your target audience.  So having less followers but every one of those are your target audience is obviously better than having many followers where none of them are your target audience.

Sin #6: Showing Up When or As You Feel Like

If you are using your social media account for business, you must not behave like you do with your personal account where your audience are your friends and families.  Showing up on an ad-hoc basis without any plan and strategy would not help growing your business.  Having a plan/strategy as well as consistency are the key when it comes to being visible.

Sin #7: Relying on Social Media Alone

Never rely on social media platform alone to grow your visibility and business. Social media platforms are ultimately someone else’s property, not yours. They can be shut down any time or they can decide to impose restriction or fees on all their users and you’ll lose all your followings you built. Your website (and your email list) belongs to you. So don’t put all your eggs in one basket, make effort on driving your social media traffic to your website and to build an email list.