5 Social Media Mistakes I See Every Week (And the Fixes That Work)

I've run social media for trades, oilfield, retail, florists, and political campaigns. Five mistakes show up everywhere.

I run a marketing agency in Midland. Every week I look at a new prospect's Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok and see the same five mistakes — not because owners don't care, but because nobody taught them what to look for.

None of these take a marketing degree to fix. Most of them take ten minutes. Here they are, in the order I'd fix them on your account today.

1. You're posting like an ad, not like a person.

The fastest way to spot a struggling small business account: every caption sounds like it was written by a brochure.

Our team is committed to delivering quality service that exceeds expectations.

Nobody talks like that. And nobody stops scrolling for it.

The accounts that actually work — for trades, for retail, for service — sound like the owner. First-person. Specific. Real. "We pulled a 30-year-old water heater out of a house in north Midland yesterday. Customer didn't even know it was leaking." That's a post. That gets stopped on.

The fix: Read your last 10 captions out loud. If they sound like a marketing email, rewrite them in the voice you'd use telling your spouse what happened at work today.

2. Your bio doesn't sell, and your link goes nowhere.

Your bio is the single most important piece of copy on your account. It's the first thing a new follower reads. And on most accounts I look at, it says something like "Family-owned since 2008. Quality service. Call us today!"

That bio does nothing. It doesn't tell me what you do, where you do it, who you do it for, or why I'd care. And the link — if there's one at all — usually points at a homepage that doesn't match what you're posting about.

The fix: Bio formula that works for trades and local businesses:

[What you do] for [who] in [where]. [One specific benefit or proof point]. [Direct CTA → matching link]

Example: "HVAC + plumbing for West Texas homeowners and businesses. Same-day service across the Permian Basin. Call us or click below to schedule. ↓"

Then make the link a real next step — booking page, contact form, lead magnet. Not the homepage.

3. You post in spurts, not in rhythm.

Three posts in a week, then nothing for a month. The algorithm punishes that more than people realize.

Instagram and Facebook both reward accounts that post consistently. Not heavily — consistently. Two posts a week, every week, beats ten posts in one week and zero for the next three.

The fix: Pick a cadence you can actually hold. If you can only do twice a week, do twice a week. Use a free scheduler (Meta Business Suite is built right in) and load up a week's worth on Sunday night. Done.

If you can't sustain even that, that's a sign the work is too much for the time you have — which is where an agency starts to pay for itself, but that's a different post.

4. You're ignoring your DMs.

I audit a lot of accounts. I'd say half of them have unanswered DMs from real prospects sitting in their inbox right now.

People don't fill out contact forms anymore. They DM. They ask "do you service Odessa?" or "what does a Reel cost?" or "can you come out next week?" — and the message sits there, unread, for days.

Your hottest leads are the ones who took the time to write you a question. Don't make them wait two business days for an answer they could've gotten from a competitor in two minutes.

The fix: Check DMs once in the morning, once at lunch, once before you log off. Set up a saved reply for the three most common questions you get. If you have a team member, give them DM access — Whitney runs DMs for several of our clients and that alone has changed close rates.

5. Your Stories are empty.

This is the one that costs you the most.

Stories are where buying intent shows up. Someone follows your main feed because they like your brand. They watch your Stories because they're already considering buying from you.

When new prospects land on your profile, the very first thing they look at is whether you have an active Story ring. No Story ring = you look inactive = they bounce.

The fix: Post one Story a day, minimum. It doesn't have to be polished. A photo of the truck on a job site. A 5-second video of a finished install. A poll asking "what should we feature next?" Stories don't have to perform — they just have to exist. Showing up daily on Stories is the cheapest credibility win in social media.

What to do this week

Pick the worst one on your account. Fix it tomorrow. Then the next worst, the week after. Don't try to fix all five at once — you'll burn out and quit.

If you'd rather hand this off — because you're trying to run a business, not learn social media — that's what we do at Finch Media Co. We run social media, build AI systems, and create brand content for owners across the Permian Basin and beyond.