Ouch! Social Media Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

The do’s of social media are important. The don’ts are even more crucial. When setting out to market your business in the social media realm, you need to get familiar with ways of communicating online that don’t bring damage to your business or lower your brand’s reputation. There are definitely a few things to avoid. Here is a handful that I have found to be detrimental:

 

 

Using Social Media Primarily to Sell Your Business / Product / Brand

This may be the most important piece of information to remember when posting and interacting on a social media platform. I’ve found that the most effective way of ultimately making a sale is to build brand loyalty. The 80/20% principle is a useful way of dividing your time spent on social media platforms. It simply illustrates that 80% of your time should be spent engaging and communicating with your customers in a fun, relaxed way. The other 20% of your time can be spent selling your brand. And even then, this needs to be done in the right way!

 

Spamming

Giving people information that is irrelevant, boring or downright repetitive can all be seen as spamming. Each time you are about to post a comment or engage with someone, ask yourself: Is this interesting? Is this entertaining? Is this engaging? If it’s none of these, don’t bother. People will soon notice if what you are saying is adding value to their life or just irritating them. Believe me, the last thing you want to do is irritate clients!

 

Leaving Your Profiles to Die a Sad Death

Nobody wants to ‘like’ or ‘follow’ someone who is inactive and stale. Once you have created your social media profiles, you then have the responsibility of keeping them alive! Daily updates and posts keep your brand fresh and attractive. Your customers want to know what’s happening today, not what happened two weeks ago. If you want to lose fans and followers, this would be a great way of going about it.

 

Ignoring Your Customers

When someone, customer or not, attempts to engage with you in any way, it is imperative that you use this to your full advantage. Get your finger on the pulse and tend to his/her request in an efficient, professional and helpful manner. Customers that are left hanging can do great damage to your brand. Remember that it’s not just a conversation between you and that customer; it’s in fact a conversation that is being broadcast on timelines throughout various social media networks, seen by hundreds of potential clients.

Representing and marketing a brand on social media platforms can be tricky at first, but once you have mastered it, your business reputation can grow at a surprisingly rapid rate. What are some of the don’ts you have come across? We would love you to share them with us.