It’s no secret that savvy marketers use social media to grow their businesses. A presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites increases your Social Media visibility and allows you to reach people you may never have been able to reach otherwise. Clearly, social media is a low-cost, high-impact venue for promoting and growing your business. Especially when it is coupled with high quality content that is geared for social media promotion. Social syndication is very important!
Unfortunately, social media mistakes can have the opposite effect: blurring the efficacy of your brand and causing public relations nightmares. Learn from your local inbound marketing company in Brooklyn. Avoid problems like these by steering clear of the following common social media mistakes.
Neglecting to Vet and Supervise Your Social Media Managers
Many business owners delegate social media responsibilities to other employees, but this can be risky. If you’re not absolutely sure that your social media managers understand your company’s branding (including tone, vocabulary, priorities, and keywords), hang on to this responsibility until you find someone trustworthy. Thoroughly vetting, training, and supervising those who have free rein of your social media can save you countless headaches. The same recommendations apply when you hire a digital marketing agency, or a social media marketing agency.
Posting the Same Types of Content Again and Again
Content Marketing does not mean posting teh same message again and again. You don’t want to come across as boring and uncreative, but that’s the kind of message you send when you post the same types of content over and over again. If you find yourself in a social media rut, look around and get ideas from other businesses. Maybe try adding videos if you always post quotes. Create interesting graphics or post surveys. Variety adds interest, and you certainly want your business to be considered interesting.
Buying Likes or Followers
When you talk about buying followers, you should make a clear distinction between paying campaniles like Facebook or Twitter to show your content to more people who you target and between buying “phantom followers” from shady operations on the internet.
Facebook and Twitter built large advertising platforms in which you can target the type of audience that is appropriate for your business. If you have a store that sell baby clothes and toys you should probably target women who live in your area and have young children. If you sell custom turbo charge car engine parts, you should probably target young men who show interest in cars and car racing.
Legitimate social Media companies will show your message to an audience who is interested in it and will probably care enough to interact. These are the people you want to reach and paying Facebook or Twitter to show your message is a legitimate advertising activity.
Buying “Phantom followers” is something that you need to resist! Fake followers will not increase your actual visibility and might even decrease your overall reach because fake fans don’t interact or engage with your Facebook page. This tells the Facebook algorithm that your content isn’t interesting to your audience.
Plus, when you rely on buying likes and followers, you get lazy. Earn likes and followers the old-fashioned way, by producing quality, interesting content and engaging prospective customers.
Constantly Promoting Your Services and Products
Yes, you’re a business, and yes, you are trying to earn a living. But constantly promoting your services and products will not win you friends.
Social media marketing is all about building relationships and earning the respect of prospective customers. Think about using social media to become a thought leader and an expert in your industry. If you can achieve this, people will come to you when they need what you have to offer. Try to strike an 80/20 balance. Spend 80 percent of your posts on engaging, high-value, non-salesy content, and promote your services and products no more than 20 percent of the time.
Responding Negatively to Negative Feedback
All businesses deal with negative feedback from time to time, but when the negative feedback is on social media, it’s out there for the whole world to see. And that can be very difficult.
Still, you can look at negative feedback as a way to reinforce your brand’s commitment to customer service. Avoid deleting negative feedback: there will be repercussions. And avoid ignoring negative feedback: this sends a message that you’re unconcerned about poor customer service. Instead, respond to these comments promptly and thoughtfully
Harness the power of social media by avoiding these common social media mistakes. Use social media to grow your business, but use it wisely. If you do, you’ll spread your influence and enjoy increased visibility on the web and in your community.
About Park Slope Softworks: Park Slope Softworks is a Digital Marketing Agency, Specializing in Inbound Marketing services, that helps businesses get new leads and grow their businesses by creating targeted content and exposing the right audience to it. You can reach us at 646-519-3534 or send us an email to: enqueries@parkslopesoftworks.com
If you like what you read. check out our Ebook: “How to turn Facebook likes into paying clients.”
