Don't let these social media mistakes happen to you!
Every business can benefit from social media – if your accounts are managed the right way. Take a look at three common social media mistakes below to see if your social media marketing plan could use a little help.
Not posting enough. If you’re too busy to post on your social media accounts on a daily basis, try to do it every few days or at least weekly. Any less than that and people will begin to feel like there’s no point in engaging with you or your brand because you’re account is largely inactive. Post a mix of content, images, videos, links to blogs, and marketing updates for your business on a regular basis to get the best results from social media.
Getting too personal. Social media does allow for greater interaction with your target audience, but getting too personal with your Facebook and Twitter updates can lose your brand’s message. Showing the human side to your company is always a good thing, but constantly posting updates about yourself, your day, what you had for lunch, etc., will make your fans and followers feel like they’re on a personal account; not a brand page.
Ignoring consumers. Once you have your social media accounts set up, make sure you remember to check direct messages as well as any posts your followers tweet or leave for you on Facebook. Completely ignoring questions, concerns, feedback, and complaints can make your brand look bad and make prospective customers think twice about choosing your company. You don’t have to answer every follower, but try your best to respond to as many as possible so followers and customers alike will know you’re a responsive company who welcomes interaction.
Do you have a social media mistake to add or a tip to share? Leave it in comments below.
We were definitely guilty of the first mistake Shannon. It’s my opinion that you simply cannot get the best out of social media without a smart phone. At least then you can interact while your out and about and have interesting things to post on your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
i totally buy your tip Robert.. infact, i finally got a smartphone to do just that .. around 2 weeks ago..
and i’m lovin it !
Hi Shannon,
i totally like your first tip… but sometimes posting too much too frequently also pi**es people off..
hence my suggestion: neither too less nor too much posting on social media platforms.
regards..
What I would like to know is how to keep track of conversations on twitter? I find it a lot easier to use Facebook, even across different timezone.
Yes, definitely. There’s a fine line when it comes to posting… too much and you annoy followers, too little and they feel ignored. Finding a good balance between the two is important. However, you also have to take into account how many followers you have and how often they interact with you. If you have a highly active account, you’ll be able to get away with posting more. On the other hand, if you have a lower amount of followers who don’t interact often, you’ll want to tailor your posting schedule to match.
Adrian, you can always click on the tab that has your username on Twitter to see any mentions, retweets, etc. on Twitter. That makes it easy to know who is trying to interact with you. But if you want to have a more detailed conversation, a direct message will work better for you and you’ll be able to easily keep track of that.
For companies jumping into social media without sitting down and putting thought into it could be one of the worst mistakes. These 3 mistakes listed here of course would be part of that sit down and put thought into it scenarios. For business you want to work out a plan for any events that you may have in the future not the specific event but what the process will be for all events and how that will integrate into your social media/E-Mail plans.
Your customers, social media followers, and brand ambassadors don’t want to hear about your event the day before they want to be able to plan for your event. I usually suggest minimum of 5 days before hand but have seen 3 days work for some companies anything less then 3 days though and you begin to negatively effect your brand image..
Posting daily or a couple times a week (facebook) is a must. But I would suggest very rarely to post more than once a day. I liked an unrelated page and have found that it’s updated 3 and 4 times a day… too much, I’ve stopped reading their posts.