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7 Social Media Mistakes Marketers Must avoid
Social media marketing mistakes can cost the reputation of your business. No one wants to see the efforts for promoting a brand doomed by a bad social media move.
Like dinner tables, social media has manners and faux pas that all marketers must adhere to. Want to know the most common social media blunders? Read on and make sure you don’t make these mistakes yourself.
7. Not interacting with your Audience
Whether you’re manually updating your social media accounts or automating posts, you should always be interacting with your social media fans. After all, what’s the point of making a post or asking a question if you’re not going to respond to any questions or comments?
Social media is all about interaction. This is a great way for consumers to view your company as more than just a money-making enterprise. It’s composed of real-life, hardworking people who care about the opinions of their consumers and want to create a unique shopping experience. Social media is a great way to illustrate these traits and get useful, constructive criticism from the people actually using your products and services.
So be sure you’re always responding to Facebook comments, Twitter tweets and Instagram comments because conversation is the backbone of social media.
6. Posting irrelevant content
Whenever a holiday or exciting event, such as the Olympics, comes up, you can bet that social media marketers will jump at the chance to tie their product to it. Seems like any viral or current story that is hopping around the Internet is worth it. But, is it really helpful?
Does it make sense for a vacuum cleaner brand to tag #olympics?
#blessed has been popular lately, but do you really need to use it?
Your audience can tell when you’re forcing your product to fit into a current event, and they usually don’t respond well. The posts often look cheesy and lack any true motivation, other than to sell. As we’ll talk about in a little bit, most consumers are turned off by posts that are too salesy, so avoid this social media mistake.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wishing your fans and followers a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year or otherwise. Just leave it at that and focus on something that does relate to your industry.
5. Forgetting the “Call to Action”
Let’s say you put together a great cross-channel post that includes a blog post and a knock-out Instagram photo gallery. You post it, but are disappointed by the lack of response and the limited, almost non-existent bump in visitors to your company’s website. What went wrong?
Many social media marketers forget the number one component of any post, tweet or comment: the call to action (CTA). The Best Calls to Action invite readers to take the next step after they’ve read your content or scrolled through your Pinterest board. It allows you to guide them to the next step of your marketing process. Do you want them to purchase a product or flip through your new sales catalog?
Whatever the action, make it clear and easy to follow. Provide links to the sites you want your viewers to visit and continue to interact with them.
4. Spelling and grammar mistakes
If your post has any sort of grammatical or punctuation error, then you’re basically sending a red flag to viewers saying, “Don’t bother with us, we don’t even know how to spell.” At best, no one will comment on your post.
At worse, you’ll get an onslaught of the grammar police who feel compelled to correct your error. Not one of them will bother addressing the content of your message.
Check before hitting that Post button.
When writing a post, take a step back and reread what you’ve written. If you’re still nervous, have a second set of eyes look over the post and make sure that the message is clear and free of spelling and grammar mistakes.
Remember, all spelling and punctuation mistakes will get you the same type of negative attention, so be certain your work is flawless.
This really extends to all branches of social media. Your blog posts should be checked and double checked before posting. Never ever post even a comment without rereading it. One errant comma and you’ll never hear the end of it.
3. Big words for little phrases
It’s a common misconception that one who uses big words must be smart, but a big word is not always better. Do you really get more meaning if you use a big, rarely used word versus a more common word? Do you even know if you used it correctly?
Remember, just because you can use a big word correctly in a sentence doesn’t mean your audience will care. Or understand what you are saying.
Trying to prove you are smart is one of the most common social media marketing mistakes. Your copy should be creative of course, but easy to follow.
Your audience will not only be less impressed, but they also might not understand whatever it is you’re trying to say. They’ve completely missed your message and purpose.
2. Writing too many “salesy” posts
Your audience can smell a sales post through their Ethernet cable. Sales posts lack any other goal other than to pitch a product or service to the consumer while offering no useful information. In a way, they’re kind of like billboards on a highway. You briefly observe what they’re selling, and then forget about it and continue scrolling down the page.
Potential customers will scroll past these faster than you think.
These posts rarely get a lot of attention or interactions, and as social media is all about creating conversations, this doesn’t help you too much.
It’s better to create more of a magazine ad, one that makes readers stop and admire the content.
1. Failing to create a concrete social media strategy
We’ve seen enough to say this is the number 1 mistake marketers make when it comes to social media.
There’s nothing worse than seeing a company struggle to maintain a concrete social media strategy. Their posts are all over the place, they lack a good CTA and none of the posts relate to one another.
If you’re posting random pictures and unrelated Facebook updates, then you’re missing out on the true benefits that social media offers.
The best social media strategies have been carefully planned out. From the blog posts to the Pinterest pins to the YouTube videos, each platform serves a purpose and furthers the Call to Action or message of your company. The posts reflect the company’s identity and brand image and are all original and engaging.
It’s not always an easy task, but creating a solid social media strategy will certainly pay off in the long run. You’ll soon have more dedicated followers who actively engage with your content and respond accordingly to your CTA.
At its core, social media marketing is an art form. It has its rules and its consequences if you fail to follow those rules. Maybe your followers will decide you’re no longer worth following, or maybe you’ll get some not-so-kind feedback. Keep your social media manners in check and you’ll have created lifetime followers.
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