11 Common Mistakes That Influencers/Bloggers Make
It is the 21st century and the internet rules everything. Today, the internet has transformed into a huge marketplace for everyone to express their views and opinions. It has also turned into a lucrative arena for advertisers to market their products. The combination of these two developments has led to the creation of a new type of marketer: the influencer. An influencer is someone who has the ability to influence or affect the purchase behaviour in a significant way. With the boom in social media, influencer marketing has become a sought after method for brands to market their products and services. This has led to a major rise in the number of influencers and bloggers. However, with the rise in influencers, there has also been a proportionate rise in the number of mistakes made by them.
Here are a few common mistakes made by influencers and how you can rectify them.
1. Posting too frequently
Although it is important to post regularly and engage with your audience, a lot of bloggers take it a bit overboard. They post so many updates that they actually end up spamming their followers. When you flood your followers feed with too many posts, they might get annoyed and unfollow you. Finding just the right number of posts in a day that works is crucial for any blogger. It also gives the audience enough time to read and consume the existing content on your page/blog.
2. Not posting enough
Just as it is dangerous to post too much, lack of posts can be equally damaging for an influencer. By posting rarely, the user might not remember you or your content which will reduce the readership of your blog. Posting infrequently also means that your followers will not be as invested in your life anymore. This seriously diminishes your powers as an influencer. Thus, finding the right balance with the number of posts is extremely crucial.
3. Unoriginal content
Keep your content original. This is a mantra by which every blogger or influencer needs to live by. A lot of bloggers focus so much on getting endorsement deals that they forget the most important thing: content. The content of your blog is what keeps bringing the user back to your website. People follow you for your story so it is important that your blogs communicate the same. Influencers need to find ways to create brand-centric content that your audience will also love. If you aren’t prioritizing the quality of your content over everything else, you’re going to start losing followers.
4. Trying to do too many things at once
There are different types of influencers within categories like fashion, beauty, lifestyle, tech, fitness, parenting and food. If you are a food blogger, trying to cover unrelated topics like beauty, tech and parenting might widen your audience but it could just as easily end up confusing your readers. Stick to only topics that you know well and make sure they’re the best. It will help you understand your audience better and grow from that. If you try too hard to attract everyone, you might miss completely.
5. Not engaging with your followers
The first and foremost rule of being a blogger is to constantly engage with your followers. The more conversations you initiate, the more impact you have on social media, thus giving you a stronger foothold as an influencer. No matter how small or big the comment is, they must be replied to. Replying to your followers also makes you more accessible and creates a personal connection with them.
6. Lack of quantitative data to support your blogs
Whenever it comes to making claims about a particular product or a service, it is important to support it with some sort of data/research to legitimize your claim. For example, if you’re referring to a type of green tea that helps you lose weight, you should also provide some sort of additional data to support your statement. It helps your blogs look more genuine instead of a desperate promotional attempt.
7. Uninteresting content
On social media, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. This statement is especially true in the life of every blogger/influencer, especially if they blog about travel, food and lifestyle. Visual aids are the perfect way to make sure your target group comes back to your blog. But that doesn’t mean written content can be forgotten. If the beautiful pictures in your blog are not supported by interesting content, it may not create a lasting impact on the reader. People are interested in knowing your stories, your experiences and your thoughts. Beautiful images are important, but you need to look for ways to make your content better than everyone else’s. It is imperative that your blog is the perfect fusion of images and content.
8. Using too many complex words
Although it is very tempting to use a lot of technical jargon and complicated words to make your blog stand out, it may actually hinder its performance. Complex words can alienate your readers if they don’t understand what you’re trying to say. The simpler the language, the more people you can reach. It makes your blog easy to understand and more shareable. Unless your blog requires a good amount of technical jargon, keeping it simple is the way to go!
9. Not proof-reading your content
It is essential for any blogger to proof-read your content once it’s been written to ensure there are no typos or grammatical errors. Spelling mistakes can immediately make your blog look amateurish. A lot of grammatical errors in your content might make it seem unappealing to the reader and reduce traffic to your blog. There are spell check tools available online like Ginger that can help you proof-read your content before posting it.
10. Not understanding your audience
In order to help improve the performance of your posts, your overall reach and engagement, you must take initiative to understand your audience. You need to fully understand their likes, interests and behaviour. This can help you fine tune your content to make your fans more interested in it. Facebook Insights and Google Analytics are some simple ways through which you can gain knowledge about your audience.
11. Not adding social media sharing options
Your content/blogs become irrelevant if the readers cannot share them on their respective social media handles. It’s only when readers share your content that your reach increases and your follower base grows. Social media icons or call-to-action buttons must be placed on all posts. It can even help measure, track and optimise the performance of all the posts.
Influencer marketing is a process that only gets better with time. By correcting these tiny mistakes, you can make sure your content reaches the right people at the right time and helps you stand out from the crowd!