First and foremost, social media is the most powerful marketing tool in your arsenal. It helps you understand your audience, promote your brand, and engage with customers—all with minimal investment. To succeed, focus on the needs of each demographic your strategy targets.

Social media is about building relationships and conversations. Ultimately, listening to audience feedback can make or break your brand.

Many brands don’t grasp this and end up doing social media wrong. We’ve listed common mistakes and signs your social marketing might not be working.

Shameless Self-Promotion

On the other hand, your brand’s newsfeed should not feel tedious or overly sales-y. In contrast, people love content that entertains, informs, and engages. However, shamelessly self-promotional posts achieve none of this.

Although it’s currently the world’s most popular video hosting site, YouTube is anything but perfect. Recently, YouTube has faced issues like unfair bans, unclear ToS updates, and a flawed copyright system.

Facebook is no stranger to controversy. From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to numerous revelations regarding abuse and misappropriation of user data,  it seems as though the social network perpetually has egg on its face. Not surprisingly, people are getting fed up.

In August, telecommunications company Verizon sold social network and microblogging site Tumblr to WordPress owner Automattic for approximately $3 million. It was, many publications noted, a massive loss on their part. Just two years ago, they purchased the site for $1.1  billion. Most agree that their purchase of the platform was a complete and utter failure. 

Have you heard of the Streisand Effect? 

If not, we’ll start the piece off with a bit of a history lesson, courtesy of the Economist. In 2003, singer and actress Barbara Streisand sued the California Coastal Records Project. The organization – whose photographic library features images of nearly the entire California coastline – included photos of Streisand’s cliffside Malibu mansion.