We don’t need to tell you that social media is massive in the business world. Providing a platform for you to promote your latest products, gain public reviews and interact with your customers, social media is a fantastic way for your business to get in the spotlight. Done incorrectly, social media has the power to destroy a business. In such a public forum 24/7, a business’ every move is under constant scrutiny from potential customers and even the media. Here’s our guide to the 8 worst social media mistakes businesses make and how you can avoid them.
1. Buying Likes And Followers
Yes, it is possible, no you should not do it! You may think it looks good to have thousands upon thousands of likes on Facebook, the fake profiles you pay for do not care about your posts, your services, or your business. All the future work you put into your company’s profile will be pointless as your audience quality is terrible and your posts won’t appear to real-life potential customers. You’ll most likely end up being penalized by Facebook/Twitter too, so this practice is effectively pointless.
2. Posting Too Much
Ever logged on to find someone posting 20 mundane posts within an hour? There’s nothing more tiring in the world of social media than a lot of boring, same content being constantly launched at your feed. If you don’t like other companies doing it, why do it yourself? If people have gone to the effort of liking and following you, they’re already interested in what you have to offer. Don’t be that clingy friend that needs to be with you all day, every day. Give your customers updates but give them space too! If you really can’t decide on how much is too much, check some of the analytics tools out there – they’ll tell you which posts get the most attention and which ones you can probably skip in the future.
3. Like-Baiting
Don’t know what it is? Posting controversial content simply to get attention and possibly more likes. It’s one of the spam of the social media world. It might get you a few more shares than normal but it doesn’t offer potential clients any information or encourage them to hire your company. Facebook has also started penalizing companies seen to be like-baiting too – so you might end up not appearing on many people’s searches or updates anyway.
4. Using Social Media Solely To Advertise
Social media is just that – social. Nobody likes the salesman that simply can’t switch off and have a normal conversation. If you’re having a massive clearance sale, promote it! Got new stock in that your customers will love? Mention it! Posting up the same 27 products every day for the last month? Nope. Do not bore your audience. If they’ve liked you, they want to interact with you and they already know what you offer. Simply put, advertising your wares constantly is another form of social media spam and will get you quickly un-liked.
5. Deleting Negative Comments
OK, firstly, by negative comments we mean unhappy customers or negative feedback. If someone is abusive, uses bad/threatening language, or is generally trolling, go ahead and delete their comments and block them. Many social media newbies fall into the habit of deleting bad reviews or negative posts left by customers. This is the second-worst thing you can do (for the record, the first is abusing/swearing/generally being an idiot towards the reviewer!) This is the perfect PR chance for any company. Show you are professional and offer fantastic customer service.
6. Ignoring Social Media ROI
It may be cheap to advertise on but once you take into account the number of hours you spend researching and executing advertising plans, the costs can so pile on. Our best advice? Hire us to do all the hard work for you. If you’re keen on managing your social media advertising yourself, make sure to add up all the hours you’re putting in yourself so you don’t lose money in the long term.
7. Being Out-of-Date
Stay in-the-know. With everything constantly changing and the world of the internet updating itself every second, around the globe this can seem a daunting task. Do your best to engage with current media and content.
8. Not Having A Social Media Strategy
In the modern age, it is essential for a business to have a well-thought-out and nicely presented social media presence. For many companies, it’s the main point of contact for many of their customers. Having a social media strategy will help you measure your successes and your shortcomings, giving you goals to work towards to improve your customer interactions and eventually your sales conversions.
