Social media is more than just a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and a Google+ page, though that is most likely where you should start.

With social media and social media marketing, there are so many more things you can do right than you can do wrong.

Fortunately, we get to teach and speak on social media marketing and Search Engine Optimization. We also build social media platforms for companies big and small. It is because of this that we also see why one person will become successful and another will fail with their social media marketing . Some will never start and we can't help that, but for the ones that do, we hope this helps.

8 Most Common Reasons Why Someone Would Fail at social media Marketing .

1. Start and Abandon

Understanding that unless your product name is similar to Coca-Cola or Nike, it may take you a little longer than them to get followers and be able to track results from your efforts. Be patient, don't give up. It is a marathon and not a sprint.

Here is a very good reason you should never stop that is often overlooked. Unless you are going to delete every profile and everything else you created, (and then start all over if you do it again, and you most likely will) there would be nothing worse than someone seeing your company profile, company Twitter page or any other of your company sites without a post or comments in several months or years. People will assume that that you went out of business.

2. Fail to Understand that Social Media is Only a Tool

A hammer is a tool itself, but it will not build a shed. You can have a whole box of tools, but if they are just sitting there, nothing gets built or fixed. Social media itself will not get you results – Using social media will.

3. Incomplete or Unimpressive Profiles

If you are going to Market on social media, then it is also important that you look good on social media and on the Search Engines. Having a good social media presence, also means you will become well indexed by Search Engines. Almost by osmosis, you will appear for very competitive search phrases for your product and/or service.

One of the the good things about social media, is if you are promoting your company, you don't even have to let people know it's you unless you want to. Whether you promote yourself or promote a company image only, have a consistent image/theme through-out all of your different sites…. and that brings us to our next point.

4. Social Media is Mostly Free

True, social media itself for the most part is free. Facebook or Twitter don't charge you to use them. However, if you do not have the resources or experience to create your own profiles, make your logo's, build your own blog, blog headers, backgrounds, websites, or whatever you need to get your message out there, you may need to have a budget set aside to set up your social media Platform.

5. Too Much Selling and Not Enough Sharing

It may sound strange to hear, but you don't really sell on social media, you share. Sharing valuable information to followers that follow you, will help build trust. This is why it is important to have followers that want the information you are sending them. (See "What is Your Social Influence"). Then by building this trust, your audience will eventually get to know you, click on links to your products and/or services. It is because they got to "know, like and trust" you that will make it easier for them to buy from you.

6. Over Automate Social Media

There are some things you can automate in social media that are valuable to do, and Twitter is great example. You will find many programs out there that allow you to auto-follow, auto-re follow, auto-un follow and auto-post tweets. We use them to a degree ourselves, but do not overdo it.

One result of over automating is you begin to look like a "robot", (that is our polite way of saying Spammer). It can become very annoying to your followers online when you post on your Twitter page, then from there it is set up to post automatically to your Facebook Profile, Facebook Page and LinkedIn page. It looks like a tweet; it is a tweet and there is really nothing personal about it.

It even gets worse when you get your RSS Feeds crossed and then you end up with 5 of the same posts going to LinkedIn. It can happen.

7. Only Use Social Media For SEO

Building a strong social media Platform so it is Optimized for the Search Engines is a valuable part of using social media, but it is not social media.

Combining your social media with a Good SEO plan is good thinking. Posting articles, videos and other media that are keyphrased, tagged and titled to get to the top of the Search Engines will pay off, but once people find your social media on the search engines, then what?

What you end up having is a wonderfully optimized social media presence for the most competitive searches, but no real "life". Then the people that are interested in researching more about you or your product will end up seeing nothing but good, helpful articles and maybe a video or two. Take them straight to a sales page or a "squeeze page" and you lost them. Where were YOU in all that social media?

You need to participate in your social media, even if it is for a few minutes a day so potential customers and clients will see you as a real person and not just a "website" with no real face…. and this brings us to #8.

8. No Social Media Marketing Plan

If you fail to plan, plan to fail. Your plan at first may be as simple as collecting emails. How are you engaging to collect them and how are you going to continue to engage them? These and many other strategies will all need to be well planned out.

There is a difference between social media, Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing and social media Management. If you would like any more information about what we can do for you, please contact us today.