With its killer features and cost-efficiency, most businesses are leveraging the power of social media in their marketing and advertising efforts. They have proven to be useful tools in engaging customers, building influence and brand awareness, and driving more website traffic to your business. If properly implemented, you can ensure long time product loyalty, improved customer service, and reduced cost of product marketing.
Many discussed the importance of avoiding misuse of hash-tags, grammar and spelling mistakes, spamming, and creating fake accounts; as these social media practices can directly ruin your business.
In this post, we’ll give you five killer pitfalls (from planning to execution) that every business should steer clear of to ensure entrepreneurial success.
#1. Posting Only Company Updates
We understand that the ultimate purpose of why you’ve created a social page is to increase your product sales and brand patronage. But, if people feel that following your Twitter page will only result in posts trying to lure them with your goods, then expect your unfollower rate to rise up.
People are wise and intelligent. They don’t like being forced to do things through blatant advertorials. They like to learn about you. So, try to post relevant studies, consumer trends, and other human interest pieces that will entice your followers. That’s why you are allowed to insert a link in its status bar or “re-tweet” an interesting fact from the people you follow.
#2. Using Too Many Social Channels
With countless opportunities (Foursquare, Vine, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and etc.) when reaching out to potential consumers, you might be wondering why we are labeling this practice as a pitfall to your success. The problem with this strategy is quite obvious: who’s going to manage all of these? It is impossible to achieve a superior presence for all of them.
Ideally, you should only concentrate on “finding three or four social media platforms where you can build the strongest presence that will be most beneficial for your business,” according to John Lee Dumas, founder of EntrepreneurOnFire, in an interview with Social Media Examiner.
#3. Worrying About Being Watched By Competitors
We came across a tweet from Wise about an eMarketer post that the majority of UK social users worry a lot about being watched through their social media accounts. Worrying about being watched, especially by competitors, should not overcome you when deploying your social media marketing campaigns.
It’s true that some people might spy on you through your social pages, but they only get to see what you share. Plus, your competitors will always watch you in several ways, not only through your Facebook and Google + accounts. We suggest that instead of resorting to this apprehension, take this chance to focus on filtering the content shared by your workforce and social media team.
#4. Thinking Social Media As A Quick-Fix To Your Problems
Sure, social media pages are an avenue for your business to address customer concerns and deploy a positive PR for your firm. If successfully done, it can positively impact your business.
But, it is important to instill the idea that these platforms are not created to serve a quick-fix for your problems. For instance, if there’s a complaint, you can immediately fire back your carefully-planned response. Think of it as a space to improve your customer service. Don’t be afraid to tell them honestly how you’ve made a mistake (if any) and show them how your business learned from it.
Always continue on producing fresh, highly relevant content, and consumer-centric posts. You’ll be surprised if over time, your followers and critical mass audiences will repost your content, and do the “damage control” for you.
#5. The One-Size-Fits-All Strategy
This is one of the mistakes common to the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and entrepreneurs. We understand that you may be lacking in manpower to create a unique content for all your social channels. However, you should understand that each site has different features and specifications. Put it this way, a Facebook post may not be applicable on YouTube or Foursquare. Forcing it may result in poor user experience or worse, no customer engagement. Make sure to review how each social media content works and create various content for each page.
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