Influencers excel at creating engaging content and resonating with their audience. But, they are often not versed in monetization and sales. They make mistakes that, at best, can reduce their income, and at worst - harm their relationship with their audience.
In this piece, we outline common mistakes to avoid as a content creator and share actionable insights on how to go about avoiding them:
1. Working in a Bunch of Niches
Suppose you’re about to start a baking business and you need information on desserts.
Which source would appeal most to you?
- A site that posts general content about nutrition?
- A blog with the recipes of the buns you plan to bake?
Chances are you’ll go with the second since it’s more aligned with your interests. Plus, it’s more likely the author is an expert in that field.
Likewise, you’ll want to choose a niche if you want to succeed in blogging and social media marketing.
In 2020, GrowthBadger conducted a survey on 1,117 bloggers. In their findings, 73% of bloggers who earn $50,000+ yearly said they serve a particular niche audience.
Choosing a niche helps you establish authority in your field of interest. A solid market niche ensures that a specific group of customers will want to buy from you instead of going to the competition.
How to Avoid This Social Media Mistake
Define your uniqueness and how you can be of interest to your target audience. Next, pick a niche that best serves your target audience. If you’re a beginner, find your first subscribers among your friends and friends of friends.
Pitch some topics to them and let them help you understand whether the topics will be of interest to a broader audience.
Users appreciate valuable content and will keep coming back for more if your content is good.
2. Not Preparing Your Audience for Advertising
If you visit blogs that sell affiliate products, you may have come across a statement at the top of the introductory paragraph that reads:
“This post contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links…” or a variation of it.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires marketers to disclose that they’re compensated for placing links or endorsing products in a blog. Complying with this rule is very important as it prepares your audience for advertising.
It facilitates transparency which builds trust with your audience.
Failure to include this disclosure is not only unethical, it might put you on the wrong side of the law and negatively impact your brand.
Recently, the FTC updated its affiliate disclosure guidelines to include more disclosures aimed towards social media influencers.
How to Avoid This Social Media Mistake
If you’ll be adding any affiliate links to your content, make sure to disclose this according to the FTC guidelines.
The links should be added with the content or as soon as the content is published. If you add them later, your audience might not click on them.
Also, use referral links as soon as you have created enough content to start from and added friends from your contacts.
Don’t hide or disguise the links. Let your audience know that they can save money by buying some of the promotional products you’ve endorsed.
3. Not Matching Your Ads with Blog Topic
Your advertising should be relevant to the content on your blog or landing page.
The content on your blog should relate to the ads you show your users. If you run a fashion blog, advertising real estate deals wouldn’t convert as your audience isn’t prepared for that.
How to Avoid This Social Media Mistake
The average income of bloggers grows as the number of advertisers they work with increases.
In 2021, bloggers working with 2-5 advertisers earned on average 3 times more than bloggers working with a single advertiser.
Bloggers who worked with 6 or more advertisers, on average, earned $1,635 per month for CPA and affiliate links. 4-5 times more than those who worked with 2-5 advertisers.
Pay attention to what the audience likes the most, especially advertising-wise. And create content users want to see. Don’t try to advertise products with the highest earnings if they are not in line with your blog.
4. Collaborating with Everyone
Social media influencers have proved to be effective in instilling trust. In fact, 49% of consumers rely on bloggers' recommendations when making buying decisions.
But, partnering with the wrong influencers can impact your ad negatively. Why? Partnering with the wrong influencer creates inauthentic advertising that lacks credibility.
Instead, make a selection of bloggers who make content that is in line with yours and work with them one by one.
How to Avoid This Social Media Mistake
Vet influencers you partner with to ensure you’re collaborating with reputable, high authority creators in your niche.
5. Being Overly Promotional
It’s easy to piss people off and lose followers on social media by being too promotional.
You need a balance between promoting your content and delivering value to your audience. Heavy promotional content comes off as sales-ey, inauthentic, and unprofessional.
How to Avoid This Social Media Mistake
Instead of being sales-ey, focus on building a relationship with your target audience. The best way to do this is by providing genuine and relevant content.
Share valuable content that may or may not benefit your business and interact with your audience.
Wrapping Up: Monetizing Social Media
As a beginner, blogging and social media monetization mistakes are hard to avoid. But they can easily be corrected.
When monetizing social media, remember to:
- Choose a niche
- Match your ads with the blog topic
- Prepare your audience for advertising
- Partner with the right influencers, and
- Provide genuine content