Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

Social media is a totally hot commodity at the moment and businesses are flourishing because of it. However, there are several mistakes that you should avoid to ensure that social media works properly for you.

Incomplete profile

Everyone knows that if you want to be a part of social media, you need to create an account. Additionally, you need to complete your profile. Leaving your profile incomplete is a huge mistake.

An incomplete profile not only makes you look unprofessional but it also takes away the possibility of other business associates being able to know you and your company better.

You need to make sure that you complete your profile and take advantage of all of the features that are offered to you. Make sure that you attach a photo to your profile and add appropriate links so that your visitors get a good sense of your company’s branding.

New content

If you just let your social media accounts sit and don’t continually contribute fresh ideas by way of content, your followers will lose interest in your website very quickly. That is the best way to be crossed off of a visitor’s list of people and businesses to pay attention to.

You need to understand the appropriate frequency of posting new content to your website. The frequency depends on several factors. It depends on how strong your followers feelings are for your company, how appealing your offerings are and how much credible content you are posting on your website.

Not having a blog

Having a blog is very important because it generates a lot of valuable content and it promotes discussions between you and your followers. Blogging is a very important way of engaging your followers and getting them to learn more about you. Make sure that you pay close attention to your followers and respond to them when they ask you a question or make a comment.

Your blog is a wonderful way to connect business relationships that hopefully will lead to more business for you. The exchange of business ideas can be very fruitful.

Not having a consistent image or branding

Your branding is totally a part of your social media platforms. Your social media platforms need to communicate your brand image at all times. Your image needs to have a consistent look and feel and it needs to be memorable to your clients (current clients and potential clients). The style that you communicate needs to be consistent with your overall online strategy.

Although each social media strategy is different, the foundation of what you are trying to communicate should be a constant. Each social media platform is different so you need to make subtle changes in each one without losing your overall message.

Separation of business and personal accounts

Your clients certainly are not interested in your personal life. You can have many accounts on each social media platform so please take advantage of that. Make sure that there is a clear delineation between your business and personal accounts.

Large quantities of friends

One of the most exciting aspects of social media networks is that you can be connected to so many people. You need to pace yourself when it comes to acquiring friends. You may come across as insincere if you try to connect with too many people at once.

You should choose only people who have a business connection with you and only people with whom you have a genuine connection (whether you have met them online or in person). Always choose quality over quantity.

You should choose people who believe in what you are offering and will tell others about it. In turn, you should treat them the same way. You should make a huge effort to help them by telling others about their offerings. Solid relationships are just as important in business as they are in your personal life.

Personal opinions in your business accounts

You should never post political opinions, or any personal opinions, for that matter, on your business account. Your business account is certainly not an appropriate forum for you to make your political feelings known.

Those types of subjects have the potential to offend others and ultimately, that can hurt your business. Consider that if you wouldn’t bring up certain subjects when you are with your clients, you shouldn’t post them on your social media platforms.

Being aggressive

You need to regard every person who is following you online as a potential client. In other words, you need to be discreet about how you promote your products and services to them. Before you can market directly to your followers, you need to build relationships with them. They need to trust you and feel that you are credible.

It is never a good idea to directly ask your followers after they have just become your followers to buy what you are selling. You won’t have any relationship foundation yet and there would not be a reason yet why they would buy from you.

Posting and deleting

If you post something that you feel you shouldn’t have posted, don’t delete it. You really can’t make it go away anyway because the search engines have a record of it the second you post it. If you try to delete it, you may be drawing more attention to the post than you wanted, which defeats your purpose.

The best approach is to leave it as is and post a new comment clarifying what you meant to say or correcting the original post. Of course, the best thing to do is always to think before you post so that you avoid this situation.

Spamming

Never spam. If you inundate your followers with unwanted or automated messages, they will become annoyed and you may acquire a reputation as a spammer. Some of the social media channels allow you to send updates to your account automatically.

That is great; however, you need to be cognizant of the impression that you will be creating if those are the only posts that you have. You may come off as impersonal, which will completely defeat your purpose of trying to create a warm atmosphere of valuable information and stimulating discussions.

Not measuring your impact

Since you have put such a great deal of effort into your social media strategy, you will certainly want to measure the impact that it is having on others. You should decide up front what sort of a return you want from your social media strategy.

Maybe you are looking for increased buzz about your products and/or services. Maybe you are looking for increased brand awareness. Maybe you are looking for increased traffic to your website.

You should decide exactly what you want before you implement your strategy and monitor it closely.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.