by Edie Melson

Collectively speaking, I’ve seen a lot of improvement in how authors interact online. That said, there are still some common mistakes. These things are affecting your blog, making readers click away before they finish a post and even unsubscribe altogether. The funny thing is that most of them are minor and easily correctable. So take a look at the list, and see if you can improve your interactions with just a small change!

Blogging Mistakes

• Lack of Interaction. When someone takes the time and effort to comment on your blog post, it’s only polite to answer them. Sure there are days when we get busy and really can’t reply, but if you’re known for taking time to answer, those times will be forgiven. After all, look how patient you all are with me!

• Inconsistent Posting. I know I’ve said this at least one hundred times, but it bears repeating. If you expect readers to visit your blog consistently, they have the right to expect you to blog consistently.

• Weak Blog Post Titles. I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover—or its title. But we all do it. Without compelling titles, blog posts go unread and readers unsubscribe. 

• Little or No Formatting. Reading online takes more effort than reading actual ink on paper. Bloggers can overcome that with proper formatting. This includes using a sans-serif font, block formatting, bullet points, and bold subheadings. All these make the page easier to read.

• Too Many Grammatical Errors. I know, I really shouldn’t be the one throwing stones here. You all know I’ve allowed misspelled words, omitted words and grammatical errors into my posts. But  I’m referring to numerous errors in almost every single post. 

• Lack of Focus. Variation isn’t bad, but don’t go overboard. A blog without a focus is a blog without an audience.

• Posts that are too Long. People today are way more willing to spend time rather than money. Regularly posting things that are more than 500 – 600 words long will cost you readers.

• No Images with Blog Posts. Just like the formatting issue, images help break up the text and provide for easier reading. They also give visual clues to the content.

Social Media Mistakes

• Hogging the Steam. This is when there are multiple posts, from the same poster, in a row. Folks are better about this on Twitter and Facebook, but not on Google Plus and Pinterest. I’ve had to unsubscribe from several Google Plus folks because they are hogging my inbox. So do yourself a favor and leave ten to fifteen minutes between updates—on ALL networks!

• Becoming the Me Show. Social media marketing is NOT the same thing as mass marketing. Although you have the potential to reach millions, you cannot treat social media as advertising. Constantly posting about yourself and your books will lose you contacts, NOT gain you sales. Use the medium the way it was designed—to build relationships—then let your friends advertise your products.

• Giving Away the Ending with Your Updates. The key to social media updates is to encourage people to interact with you. You either want them to share what you’ve shared, comment on your update, or visit your site. But composing your update in a way that bypasses the interaction will hurt you.

• Not Being a Team Player. Social media is a reciprocal proposition. If someone follows you, it’s expected that you will follow back. If someone says something nice about you, return the favor. Ignoring his aspect of social media is a guaranteed way to make your numbers drop.

• Inconsistent Updates. Social media is a network with a short attention span. Building a healthy presence means you need to be consistent. Updating twenty-five times today and not showing up again for three weeks kills any kind of momentum. Instead, six to eight updates every day, five days a week will build a following much faster.

• Lack of Focus. Just like blogging, your audience comes to expect certain things from you. If they can’t figure you out, they won’t bother following you for long.

• Valuing your Friends over Your Followers. I’m not talking about Facebook friends either. With social media your audience is your priority. We all want to help our friends promote their books, but ultimately we must value our audience. Go ahead and share about your friends’ books, but only if your audience will find the information valuable. Truthfully, you aren’t helping anyone advertising books to an audience that won’t buy it.

• Hashtag Overload. Hashtags are great—until they aren’t. Using one to two hashtags in a social media update will increase your audience. But add a third or fourth in there and you’ll loose numbers.

• Chaos Reigns. By this I mean you’re not utilizing a scheduling program, like Hootsuite. If you’re doing it all on your own, you’re wasting valuable time. Learn how to use a scheduler and redeem some valuable writing time.

These are the main mistakes I still see over and over again as I spend time on blogs and on social media. Now I’d love to know what issues you’ve encountered.