9 Mistakes Businesses Make on Social Media

What Not To Do On Social Media

Joining the world of social media marketing can get your business a lot of exposure but also has the potential to ruin one’s reputation. Those not familiar with social media may feel overwhelmed, especially with the plethora of knowledge out there on the Internet; it can sometimes feel intimidating trying to tackle all the “How To” articles and make sense of it all. Even when you think you’ve got a grasp on social media, there are many common mistakes beginners make and CS Designworks is ready to shed some light. Here are nine blunders to make sure not to make when it comes to social media marketing:   

Connecting with everyone

The follow for follow method is very popular and at first, seems like a good strategy. Someone follows you? Return the favor! It’s a win-win situation, right? The problem lies in that following someone just for the sake of following doesn’t increase the only number that matters: engagement. While your follower count will rise, chances are people who follow back everyone aren’t really interested in what you have to say. They follow you and never touch your profile again.

No Lead Generation

For those who are unaware, a lead is a person with interest in your product or service and lead generation is the process of attracting those potential customers and priming them to become buyers⁵. The ultimate goal of any social media marketing campaign is to drive traffic towards your website. You’ll want to make sure your audience has plenty of ways to connect with you. Link them to your site and your blog. Offer them opportunities to sign up for a newsletter or email blast. To learn more about lead generation and using it to attract customers click here.

Don’t Constantly Promote Yourself

No one is going want to hear what you have to say if you’re only talking about yourself. One of the biggest social media marketing faux pas is a page full of “Buy my product!” Advertising your product or service is fine as long as within reasonable limits; for those confused, if your posts are 90% advertisements that is way above the reasonable limits. 

Don’t Spam

Posting consistently on social media is good. Posting constantly is not. Think about that one aunt on your Facebook newsfeed who updates her status with the every minutiae of her life. Now realize that your business can too be that obnoxious aunt so be wary about how many times you post or tweet in a day. There are many differing opinions on how often one should post but generally, once to the three times is acceptable. Of course different outlets call for different posting methods; with Twitter, one can get away with posting more than three times a day but if you post too much on Facebook, your page will actually be penalized if there is no engagement.

#Use #All #The #Hashtags

Hashtags are really helpful when it comes to trying to get your content found. It increases your chances of discoverability so some people are inclined to cram in as many hashtags as they can in a tweet. The problem is, after two hashtags engagement drops by 17%⁴. While on twitter, posts with hashtags can expect two times the engagement than posts without but if you include hashtags in a post on Facebook, you will see a decrease. Facebook posts without hashtags fare better than those with.

Don’t rely on Automation

Automated publishing platforms have been a blessing to many businesses trying to post consistently while also not becoming a slave to social media. However, it can also be a curse if abused. Those who fill up their social media calendar for the month one day and forget it till the next month are doing themselves a disservice. Relying solely on automation is an effective way to appear robotic. Social media is called “social” for a reason; automation takes away the interaction. Make sure to humanize your brand and engage with your followers.

Don’t highjack Hashtags

A good strategy on twitter is to check the trending hashtags and see if there are any that relate to your brand. A lot of times the hashtags are fun and allow for your business to show its humorous side, but often the hashtags represent serious issues or events going on in the world. Be careful when using these hashtags because business have “highjacked” hashtags and accidentally made a distasteful tweet. One example, during the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt, the hashtag #Cairo was trending¹. Kenneth Cole took the opportunity to tweet: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is available online.” This, naturally, upset a lot of people. Whether companies do this intentionally or on accident, be careful of which trending hashtags you use.

Buy Your Followers

CS Designworks will warn you of the perils of buying your followers until we are blue in the face. Don’t do it. We understand the appeal of having thousands of followers but if you have learned anything about social media marketing it is that the follower count doesn’t matter if they are not engaging with your account. A handful of active followers are a lot more valuable than thousands of fake accounts. When you buy followers your buying fake accounts whose sole purpose is to follow you and than nothing else. Once people see your following is fake (and it is not hard to tell), you instantly lose your credibility as a trustworthy resource.

Going MIA

It is common knowledge, at this point, that your business should be on at least one social media platform. Too often is the case that businesses become excited at the prospect of a successful social media marketing campaign and new business, create their profiles, post once, and then forget about it. An abandoned Facebook page or Twitter account sends the message that your company is either unresponsive, not current with the times, or simply out of business. Ghosts are only fun in horror movies, don’t let your profiles turn into one.

 

 

If you've made some of these mistakes, no worries. It is never too late to right the wrongs of the past and start social media marketing the right way! Still intimidated by the whole process of social media marketing? Contact CS Designworks and we’ll be your guide.

 

 

 

Sources

1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/capitalonespark/2012/12/20/9-things-businesses-shouldnt-do-on-social-media/#3c073833bdcd
2. https://www.postplanner.com/top-10-mistakes-businesses-make-on-social-media/
3. http://hellospark.com/en-us/blog/7-things-business-never-social-media/
4. https://blog.bufferapp.com/a-scientific-guide-to-hashtags-which-ones-work-when-and-how-many
5. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/beginner-inbound-lead-generation-guide-ht#sm.000130otddp7wf29wuo2qmfz8dj66