Content marketing has caught on with brands and marketers, but many content marketing strategies are doing it all wrong. Obvious mistakes include not focusing on search engine optimization, or *gasp*, drunk tweeting, but there are several not-so-obvious mistakes that can ruin any brand’s marketing strategy.

Take a look at these three dreadful, yet common, content marking mistakes you need to avoid.

Talking Only About Yourself

Everyone has that friend that loves talking about him/herself and makes retelling even the most mundane event sound like an autobiography. Social media presents a great opportunity for brands to be real about who they are and connect with their consumers on a much deeper level than before possible. A huge content marketing mistake brands make however, is looking at social networks and blogs as places to broadcast their message,   only to talk about themselves.

Social media is generally accepted as a place for discussion and sharing of ideas, not pushing the most product or providing only internal updates. If a content marketing strategy only involves talking about yourself, your followers will stop listening to you. Frame your strategy through authority by sharing progressive industry related ideas. If a brand can prove that they have a substantial amount of knowledge in a topic, followers will trust that account and become much more likely to act in their favor when asked to in the future. Stick to the 80/20 rule, which suggests sharing a ratio of 80% curated content and 20% of your own content.

Relying Strictly on Social Automation

The online world moves fast. Tweets, Facebook statuses and some blog posts are only relevant for so long, unless it happens to be high quality evergreen content. If the main channels for content marketing strategies move fast and in real time, does it make sense to use them only in the context of a rigid schedule?

Using an app like HootSuite or Buffer is a great way to maintain consistency in a content marketing strategy, but it shouldn’t BE the content marketing strategy. Consider Oreo’s recent real time content efforts like the Gay Pride rainbow Oreo or the infamous Super Bowl Blackout Tweet.

Power out? No problem. pic.twitter.com/dnQ7pOgC

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013

Each of these simple actions earned Oreo thousands upon thousands of interactions and many new and involved followers. Ignoring current events and instead relying on apps to schedule updates is a major content marketing mistake. Likewise, relying on an automation service will take all of the community engagement out of your content marketing strategy and that’s exactly what audiences DON’T want.

Not Adopting Emerging Networks

New social networks and online marketing channels emerge everyday. Most of them never rise to the top of the app store, but every once in a while a new social network manages to captivate online influencers and becomes widely used.

Of course, brands won’t want to waste time hopping on every single social network that emerges, but not staying up on these trends is a missed opportunity and a content marketing strategy mistake. Imagine being one of the first brands to figure out Pinterest like Whole Foods, or an early adopter to Vine like General Electric. Both of these brands have massive followings on the respective networks after being among the first to use them. Whole Foods and General Electric exemplify the benefits of having an adaptable content marketing strategy, one that is open to trying new things and following customers online. Brands must recognize which networks fit their content and adapt seamlessly. Restaurants may find Facebook and Twitter useful to share coupons or menu updates, whereas a brand with an audience of moms will want to use Pinterest since over 70% of Pinterest users are women, many of whom are moms. Know your customers and anticipate the platforms they will flock to.

Don’t let all your hard work and content marketing dollars go to waste by committing these marketing mistakes.  After all, no one wants to listen to you talk about yourself all day; that is what their annoying Facebook friends are for!