Here are the most common social media mistakes we come across every day. Mistakes that are worth noticing and avoiding, as they stand on our way of building LinkedIn engagement, growing brand awareness, engaging with the audience and attracting new opportunities.

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Ignoring your audience

One of the first things that come to mind when looking at a brand's social media presence is engagement. We often scroll through the feed to see how many followers, likes, and comments the brand has attracted. But how often do we see that brands completely ignore recent comments or even post re-sharers? You must engage and react back to your most active audience to keep them coming back and grow your community.

Lacking frequent activity

Posting new content is great, but don’t forget it’s all about frequency and consistency. And when you do make a post, think about ways to present it, what hashtags to include. See if it is relevant to tag someone in the post. All your smallest actions play a role in getting your content out to your audience.

Overkilling it with product sales vs driving the conversation

Although your social media account is built with one objective in mind - attract new business - not all your social media activities need to be about your product and hard sales tactics. Add fresh air to your posts and share something interesting about the industry you work in, your experience, perhaps your opinion about the latest news or research piece. It all still works towards your objective, just in a more effective and conversational way.

Failing with good quality presentation

Sometimes we all have fallen down the same route of creating something quickly to just get it out there. But it is worth taking time to make good quality content, whether it’s a piece of graphic banner, article or gallery. Check how your content looks like both for your mobile and desktop readers. What is the quality of the image, are all details fully visible when posted? More often than not we see weirdly cropped banners and half thought through intro lines.

Misunderstanding your audience

Know who are your followers and direct network. Are they senior-level professionals or mainly junior post-graduates? You must understand who your posts are targeting and talking to. Make it appropriate and interesting to them. You might consider a certain format, for example, switching from articles to videos, or from blog posts to slide-shares.

Forgetting about the power of others

It’s great that you know very well how to pitch and present your product. But nothing compares to a good recommendation, feedback or endorsement from someone who has worked with you or has come across your brand. An effective influencer marketing campaign can drastically increase engagement, drive brand trust and awareness. Work with your employees, ask your customers to participate and support you. Collaborate with micro-influencers to target new audiences and niche market segments.

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This article was prepared by BrandRefer, your trusted full service influencer marketing agency for LinkedIn.