Not everyone is a social media expert and many business owners make serious mistakes that impact their business in a negative way. If you want social media to work effectively for your business, avoid making these mistakes.
Arguing with Criticism
If someone leaves a rude comment on your social media, the absolute worst thing you can do is respond with the same attitude. Don’t stoop down to their level, you have to take the high road as your reputation is on the line. If it’s spam, delete it. If it’s legitimate criticism reply with help publicly and also read out to them personally. People are watching to see how you deal with negative feedback and you will gain new customers by responding in positive, mannered way.
Posting the Same Content
Each social media network is different and should be treated as such. You should be creating different content for each network to fit in with that networks personality. It might take a lot more time to create several different graphics for each network, but it’s important you do so.
Not Completing Your Bios
You must fill out your bio on every social media network that you are present on. You want to make sure that your audience is able to recognize your brand no matter where they see it. Be creative, you don’t want all your profiles to be identical, but keep them similar by having the same profile picture.
Mixing Business and Personal
Keep your business and personal life separate. It’s good to mix in a bit of personal stuff but don’t go posting endless pictures of your kids or what you had for lunch, unless that’s your niche. You should also avoid subjects such as politics and religion.
Not Posting Enough
If you don’t post consistently people will forget, I promise. Make sure to post through various times of the day to maximum exposure. Most social networks have an algorithm that controls how your posts are displayed to others unless you pay to promote them.
Posting too Often
Don’t just go posting every little thing that comes to your mind. No one cares that your flight is delayed. Post information that has a reason for being and that has a call to action. Do not post just for the sake of posting, no fluff. Post more than once a day, but don’t go posting every few minutes.
Not Engaging
You don’t want to appear as if you’re a fake person or that your social media is all automated. Respond and engage with your followers daily. Reply to them, answer their questions, engage with their content. If your networks are busy you may need to hire on some help to handle the volume.
Rock Social Media in Just 30 Minutes a Day!
Not Targeting Your Audience
You don’t want just anyone to follow you, you need a targeted audience. What’s the point of having 50,000 followers who don’t even care about what you have to offer?
Not Utilizing Customer Feedback
When your audience mentions things on social media, consider how you can use that information to improve your products and/or services. They are feeding you all the information you need to succeed, just pay attention and listen.
Not Monitoring Analytics
You can’t just post content onto social media and then leave. You have to come back and look at the analytics to see how it performed. If you had 0 engagement on the post, why is that? What can you do differently? If you’re post went viral, how can you make that happen again?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… You don’t have to be on every single social network. Pick a few that you know your audience uses and focus your marketing on those networks. And don’t forget to #BeReal!
