With social media dominating the online marketing world, it is fundamental that businesses learn what works and what does not. On a daily basis I see the same mistakes, again and again!
It’s high time I prepared you all with my top 5 most commonly made mistakes list. Don’t worry if you are guilty, now is the time to learn, develop and move on.
- Hashtag overload: Time and time again users adopt the ‘let’s hashtag everything’ approach. Instead ask yourself, what do hashtags actually mean? It’s simple, they are used as a way for people to search for a given topic.
Yes, multiple hashtags will results in you appearing on numerous lists, but the benefits end here. You want to provide enticing targeted content, not hinder the clarity with too many hashtags. Instead choose a couple of popular targeted keywords; this will be a lot more effective.
And remember that for Twitter, you only have 140 characters to play with. What would you prefer? To use this limited space to make your post enticing or to use hashtags for potential search benefits?
- Posting to one social network: It is important you manage all of your social media accounts and not just focus on one. I know this can be tempting at times due to time constraints and some receiving better responses than others, but you want to be easily found by all your potential customers. Yes, some social networks may be better than others for your industry, but you should aim to post on all the relevant social media in order to gain coverage and brand awareness.
- Engaging with followers: The amount of companies that do not reply or thank followers for retweeting is shocking. How can you expect those followers to engage and be interested in your brand if you can’t even reply to them? A lot of business occurs on social media, as an online word of mouth. Take advantage of this and promote your business in the most favourable way. It doesn’t take much, send a few thank you posts and copy them in.
If you receive negative posts whatever you do, do not leave them or worse still delete them, thatwould be disastrous. Make sure you respond in a friendly, knowledgeable way, showing the public that you take complaints seriously and value their input. This will remove the negativity from the original post, making you the problem solver.
- Visual appeal: What catches your attention more than an image? So answer me this, why are they still absent from so many posts? It’s the easiest way to quickly summarise what you are talking about, whilst being prominent on the news feed. Choose an eye catching image that is in high resolution. There is nothing worse than a pixelated image; this will draw attention to your brand but for all the wrong reasons. Standing out is key.
For Facebook and LinkedIn, why not go the extra mile and post your videos? Surely this will catch your audience’s attention, don’t you think?
- Self-promotion: Does your profile look more like a sales pitch than an information source? If so, this could quite possibly be the worst mistake imaginable on social media. No one wants to follow a company that just promotes themselves all the time. Instead, consider issues your target market have that lead them to your business and post informative content around this. You need to be perceived as a thought leader. This will increase your following base, and then from there you can promote yourself. You will become a trusted advisor to solve their issues, being their first port of call when they demand your products.
So please whatever you do, make these five points your main social media priority for the coming weeks. Change your approach. Spend some time on your news feed and examine what works and what doesn’t, taking away tips from there.
I know it can be tempting to carry on with the same old strategy, but how can you expect to receive better results if you’re not willing to change. Now is the time to develop and grow your online presence, so embrace it!
And if you have sales staff that are begging for content or if you work with channel partners, then you should consider social media amplification platforms. This will make a huge difference to your social presence and brand awareness. But enough said!