Most brands are on social these days; very few actually use it for their benefit.
Paid media is where you pay to tell people you are cool. Earned media is where someone else tells people you’re cool. Social media is where you PROVE you’re cool.
Or don’t.
Here are the 10 biggest social media mistakes I see brands make every single day.
1. Playing it too safe
Vanilla posts, aimed at appealing to all, aren’t remembered.
Rocky Road posts aren’t 100% agreeable, and that’s exactly what you should be aiming for.
The strongest brands aren’t trying to appeal to every person scrolling social. They have a unique POV and are willing to take a hard stance. If any other competitor can be swapped in for your social copy, then it’s vanilla.
Being memorable is almost always better than being agreeable. Get comfortable knowing that not everyone will resonate with your stance.
2. Forgetting the “social” in social media
Imagine walking into a room of people, shouting the entire time and never listening. You’d never be invited back and wouldn’t create any connections.
The same thing happens on social media. Most brands post but rarely engage with anyone else.
Across the board, social media posts with replied-to comments outperform those without by anywhere from 5% to over 40%.
If you aren’t engaging with your community and industry on social media, you miss golden opportunities to answer questions, connect with customers and partners or add to the broader conversation. That’s real influence.
3. Overt selling in posts
How often do you like reading (let alone engaging with) posts that ask you to buy, schedule, call, download or click the link? Your audience feels the same way.
The best brands understand the fine balance between overt and covert selling. They inspire, educate and build trust and expect nothing in return. They put followers’ needs and entertainment ahead of their own self-promotion.
When you consistently create value and demonstrate unbiased credibility over time, the sale will still occur AND feel like a natural step forward instead of the slanted objective of every post.
4. Trying to talk to everyone
Trying to talk to “everyone” usually results in language that connects with no one.
The strongest brands on social target a narrow audience and know exactly who they are talking to. They understand their challenges, needs and use language that is directly relevant to them, with content designed to feel personal rather than generic.
Ironically, when you aim small, the people just outside your target audience also find value resulting in a larger critical mass connecting with your content. Speak clearly to the people who matter most to your business; they will recognize themselves in your messaging.
5. Overlooking employee advocacy
Your employees have significantly more reach than your brand’s social channels.
Empower them to become employee social influencers.
People trust people more than brands. Posts from individuals outperform company pages by two to three times in engagement and eight times in reach. Yet employees remain an untapped influencer group for most brands you see on social.
When employees are equipped and encouraged to share their expertise (not scripted posts), it extends your brand’s reach while making it feel more human.
6. Leaving executives on the sidelines
Brands must have a strategy to amplify their executives.
A CEO’s personal reputation accounts for roughly half of a company’s overall reputation. Taking control and driving their online presence now directly ties to increasing the brand’s value.
The strongest executive brands aren’t built to go viral. They’re structured to build an executive reputation that supports business outcomes: attracting top talent, building trust, humanizing the brand, increasing familiarity and consideration and aiding in discoverability for AI search.
7. Posting without AI search optimization
Your social content no longer lives just on social.
LinkedIn and executive thought leadership are top-referenced sources for AI search tools. For example, LinkedIn is the second most-cited domain across ChatGPT, Google AI and Perplexity — ahead of Wikipedia, YouTube and every major news outlet.
Make sure your content is optimized for AI search discoverability: formatting, consistent messaging, clear hooks and straightforward language. This shift drives better generative engine optimization (which is AI search’s ability to find your content). It is basically a free search boost.
8. Chasing every trend
Not every trending meme, challenge or video concept belongs in your strategy.
If the goal is business outcomes versus a burst of impressions, then most will not be aligned with your strategy.
The brands that actually build, well, a BRAND, reinforce what they want to be known for. They stay on strategy, they hammer their uniqueness in the marketplace, and they become the trend everyone else is trying to pile-jump.
9. Measuring likes instead of business results
Social media metrics are great, but high engagement does not always correlate with high impact on the business.
Here is a list of questions to ask as you evaluate your content strategy and performance:
- Did this post strengthen our reputation?
- Did this attract the right people?
- Did this generate interest with potential customers?
- Did this improve our discoverability for AI search?
- Did this build our credibility?
Likes are easy to measure, but are rarely the REAL business goal behind a social media strategy. The best strategies impact the business, not vanity metrics.
10. Waiting until you need a reputation to build one
Possibly the biggest mistake of them all… not participating in social media.
More than half of people globally use social media and video networks for news. If you aren’t on social, the opportunity loss is huge.
Trust compounds over time, and the strongest brands don’t start investing in social media when there is a launch, major announcement or crisis. They’ve already been showing up consistently long before.
Social media is never a “campaign” or a “project”. It’s an ongoing investment to PROVE that you are cool.
TL;DR
- Don’t play it safe. Be memorable and take a hard stance.
- Write to a specific audience instead of “everyone”.
- Teach and inspire (for free) more than you sell.
- Spend as much time engaging as you do posting.
- Empower your employees to be brand advocates.
- Help (and persuade) your executives to build a digital reputation.
- Optimize your content for AI search and GEO.
- Focus on consistency and authenticity instead of chasing trends.
- Measure business outcomes, not just the flashy metrics.
- Build your brand reputation before you need it.
About the Author: Evan Schendel is Director of Social Media, helping brands and executives across the country control and shape their digital presence.