Jimmy Rodela
A few years ago, social media was a new and unchartered territory.
However, when platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook gained a tremendous following almost overnight, businesses knew they had to follow suit in order to stay relevant.
Nowadays, an impressive 97% of businesses rely on social media to effectively connect with customers.
However, using the social media platforms to grow your business is not as simple as it may seem.
In order to generate an impressive following and foster a lifelong bond with customers, you need to be on top of two elements: leveraging social media to create a bespoke and enjoyable experience, and avoiding blunders that can put your business in serious jeopardy.
Allow me to share with you the 7 major social media marketing mistakes you need to avoid if you want your business to stay afloat and thrive.
1. Talking more and showing less
Do you flood your feeds with line after line of text?
If so, stop.
Right away.
Let us be clear about one thing: audiences are more likely to engage with tweets containing visual content as opposed to just text.
Need proof?
Studies show that image links incorporated in tweets get an engagement rate that’s 200% higher compared to those who just use the 140 characters allotted.
Turning things around:
Keep your feed interesting.
Have you seen Oreo Cookie’s Twitter page? They keep their followers hooked, thanks to mouth-watering images, charming videos and creative illustrations.
Indeed, a picture is truly worth a thousand words – use that knowledge to your work for you.
Auto schedule your posts.
Apart from enticing your audience through visual content, you also need to be mindful of posting too often.
In line with this, consider using tools that can help auto schedule your shares, tweets, etc. Hootsuite, CoSchedule and Buffer are good tools you can use to automate your sharing so you do not overwhelm your followers.
2. Not having a personality
Make no mistake about it, in most cases, automated replies and corporate jargons can send your audience scrambling in the opposite direction.
They are then welcomed with open arms by brands who are confident enough to show some personality.
Turning things around:
Be charming and relatable.
This tweet by Domino’s Pizza is a good example of a brand that is not afraid to let loose.
And judging from the number of retweets, it’s safe to assume their followers love it!
Humanize your brand.
Every once in a while show your followers the personalities behind your brand by sharing images of behind-the-scene-action in your company.
Your followers will feel more connected if they know they are interacting with a human being and not a robot.
Be yourself.
Regardless if you are tweeting as an individual or in behalf of a brand, always be mindful about sounding and appearing robotic.
Leave comments every now and then; share trending updates that resonate with your customers and use terms that appeal to them so they can relate more to you.
Remember, your personality is one of the many reasons why people follow you, so don’t think twice about letting it shine!
3. Assuming all social media platforms are created equal
If you want a social media marketing campaign that works, you need to get rid of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality.
A Social Media Examiner study discovered that while B2C buyers preferred Facebook, most of the B2B audience favored LinkedIn.
Every social media platform needs to be managed differently.
In essence, you have to be ‘fluent’ in diverse social media networks so you can effectively make each work to your advantage.
Turning things around:
Adopt a bespoke approach.
Start off by identifying the channels that are best aligned with the interest of your target audience.
Need an inspiration?
Old Spice is a classic example of a brand that uses different approaches in their campaigns.
Case in point: while it interacts with Facebook followers through forum questions, it engages with the audience through the use of entertaining videos on Youtube.
4. Not measuring the impact of your efforts
The good news: Nowadays, you have access to all the data necessary to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
The bad news: While a whopping 88% of brands use social media marketing, only 37% measure the efficacy of their marketing efforts. Are you part of the 37%?
Let us be clear about something.
The social media landscape is highly dynamic.
Within days, (or hours, even) you will most likely encounter new hashtags, trends, viral stories and videos that can capture and fascinate your target audience.
If you get too comfortable and cruise around on autopilot, you can easily miss out on an opportunity or make critical mistakes along the way.
Turning things around:
Always make it a point to measure your efforts.
Sure, it’s tempting to gauge the efficiency of your social media marketing campaign based on the number of likes, shares and retweets alone.
However, it is not an accurate way of measuring things as those numbers alone will not tell the whole story.
Get a more precise picture of your marketing campaign’s impact by making sure you study all the metrics.
Not sure what metrics to include? This comprehensive list enumerates all the metrics that count.
5. Ignoring your audience
In a realm as competitive as the business world, you simply cannot afford to take your customers for granted.
If you forego interaction and just spend all your time posting, you miss the whole concept of what ‘social’ media is all about.
Sans interaction, you make it impossible for you to connect and eventually develop a lasting relationship with your target audience.
Turning things around:
Interact accordingly and always give a timely response.
Nowadays, sharing a negative review in the searchable social web can be done in one click.
That means complaints that don’t get attended to on time have the tendency to be shared by a customer to everyone on their social network – that can be disastrous for your brand.
Fact: 72% of customers who complain about a brand, want a response within an hour. That should give you a clearer context of the importance of a timely answer.
A recent reply that I received from jfswlaw.com is a good example that I’d like to share. Just within minutes from the time I contacted one of their attorneys for legal advice, I received a reply almost immediately after I hit the “submit” button.
Note that I didn’t receive an automated reply (which I thought was the case when I first saw the unread message on my inbox). It was a detailed and personalized reply based on my inquiry.
The bottomline: Attend to customer complaints right away before things escalate.
And take time out to give answers or acknowledge a comment. It will not only make your customers feel valued, it will also make it a lot easier for you to develop a lasting relationship with them.
You can also employ the services of BPO companies like EB Call Center to help you with addressing your customer’s critical issues. Imagine seeing one of your irate customers posting on your page about how frustrated they are about your company, wouldn’t you feel safer / better if you can thoroughly discuss the issue with the customer so you can pacify their frustrations and solve their problems?
I mean, let’s face it, replying to them in social media is one thing, but having a professional representative talk to them about the matter is another. The greatly overweighs the former.
Note – I singled-out EB Call Center mainly because of how competent and highly skilled their agents are in speaking the language.
6. Posting without thinking
Remember that controversial 9/11 AT&T tribute that didn’t sit well with many people?
That is a classic example of how easily things can backfire if you do not think twice prior to posting.
At all times, keep in mind that your posts represent your brand so there is no such thing as too careful or too cautious.
Turning things around:
Be mindful about creating buzz the wrong way.
True, in today’s highly connected world, staying relevant is no walk in the park.
Trending topics can go from viral to so-(June 10, 2015) in the blink of an eye.
How do you keep up?
For starters, consider newsjacking.
This strategy entails amplifying content through popular headlines instead of creating buzz from scratch. As always, think a lot of times before posting. Otherwise, you might end up rubbing your customers the wrong way.
7. Advertising more, connecting less
Your primary goal on social media is to advertise, right?
Wrong!
One of social media’s enticing qualities is its ability to allow people to tune out mass messaging and advertising with just a mouse click.
So if you talk more but listen less, consumers can easily remove you from their feeds or unfollow you for good.
Turning things around:
Focus on what your audience wants.
Rather than talking about your brand nonstop, focus on making your audience feel special. Find out what makes them tick, share content they will find substantial and highlight their interests every now and then.
It pays to remember you do not have a captive audience so make sure you are able to build a strong connection that is worthy of their loyalty.
Conclusion
When it comes to social media, it’s safe to assume customers are in control. They expect businesses to know when, where and how to effectively connect with them. While there is no shortage of ways to get to where you want to be, avoiding the seven key mistakes will help you get to your destination faster without experiencing any headaches along the way.
Photo: © Gajus / Dollar Photo Club
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