5 Easy Ways to Sabotage Your Business’ Social Media Efforts
There are lots of ways to build your business’ web presence — professional web design and development, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising and so forth — but few are as important when it comes to directly engaging your customers as creating a social media strategy. Often, however, businesses forget about the “strategy” part of creating a social media strategy, and instead just hop online, create some accounts and see what happens. Here are five of the most common mistakes businesses make when they take that course — and some tips on how to avoid them:
- Going for Breadth Over Depth
Not all types of social media hold equal value for all businesses, and trying to maintain a presence on all social platforms is a waste of time and money. If you own a clothing boutique, then by all means jump on Pinterest and Instagram. If you run an accounting firm looking for B2B contracts, however, then LinkedIn is a much better bet. If you don’t have the in-house resources to research your target market’s online habits, then it’s almost certainly worth investing in some professional digital strategy consulting.
- Being Cold or Impersonal
The whole point of social media is that it allows you to engage your customers on a personal level, so don’t erase personality from you posts and discussions; “professional” isn’t necessarily equivalent to “bland.” Let your customers feel as though they’re getting an insider’s look at your company and employees.
- Not Creating Engaging Content
Sharing original content is a great way to build a loyal following on social media (not to mention boost your search engine optimization efforts). But you can’t do that if you’re not investing in the creation of unique, compelling content. That probably means hiring professionals to keep up your company blog, research and build infographics, and create videos.
- Spamming Your Followers
You can have too much of a good thing. No matter how great your content is, don’t overwhelm your followers with posts. Try to post regularly at peak times, rather than posting 50 times in one day and then going dark for a few weeks. You can stay visible in between posts by engaging in discussions.
- Isolating Your Social Media
In order to actually bring in leads and retain customers, your social media needs to be integrated into your overall digital strategy and included in your ongoing analysis. The easiest way to do that is to include some level of social media management as part of the website support services provided by your web team.
Do you have any dos or don’ts to share when it comes to creating a social media strategy? Join the discussion in the comments below.
