Social media marketing has become one of the most popular marketing techniques among several brands today. Every other brands are jumping on the bandwagon of social media marketing today. Why? The reason is very simple – that’s where the crowd is. Social media, if used in the right way, has enormous potential to build the brand and grow the customer base. But all the efforts could go in vein if you make some common social media marketing mistakes.
‘To err is human!’ It is all about rectifying the mistakes and making sure that they wouldn’t happen again. Let’s take a look at these social media marketing mistakes to avoid.
- Failing to create a social media strategy
A brand cannot function effectively unless it is defined flawlessly. It should have a clear set of target group, an objective and a set of characteristics or properties. The same way, social media strategy is very important in order for the brand to perform effectively in social media platforms. Many brands do not consider social media as an important or operative marketing tool and hence they completely miss out on the strategy part. But, this is one of the biggest mistakes in social media marketing that one must never make.
Develop your brand’s very own social media strategy – it’s an essential foundation to everything that you do in social media.
A well-defined social media marketing strategy consist of an action plan and clearly defined goals. Hence, this will prove to be a beneficial element in brand building and SMM.
- Not tracking results
Social media marketing is a powerful tool to earn very good results in a short time. The best part of it is that, the results can be tracked down real time. This permits you to make strategic changes in your campaign and target audiences if required. A non- performing ad can be stopped or paused, and this would enable in saving your budget until the ad is optimized.
Do not disregard or neglect to track your results.
- Treating all social media platforms, the same
Every social media platform has its own customs, language, audience and type of content. For your exertions to be productive, you have to comprehend the differences between these social networks. It is imperative to learn how people communicate on all of the social network you participate in. Don’t post the same message on all social media platforms. Understand which message resonates the best in each social media platforms that you use.
- Dealing with Negative feedback
Negative feedbacks are definitely not so welcoming, but it provides an opportunity to improve the quality of our service and build trust within the brand community. Never ignore or delete the comments or statements of an unhappy customers. Some brands are so ignorant that they reply the customers with even harsher statements. But think these negative comments from a different perspective. This is a chance for you to turn this unhappy customer into a loyal customer with the best service quality. Communicate with the customer privately and understand their problem and provide an apt solution. This way, customers would be happy with your customer support wing and this might leave a positive impact in their mind as well.
- Spamming
This is one of the worst social media mistakes by companies that must be avoided at any cost. Do not throw links in the content and sales promotion of all social networks. Using of automatic and spammy links never work. Avoid broadcasting –because social media is not another advertising channel. Instead try to engage in conversation with your audience.
- No real Followers
Little interaction means no real followers. There are many people who buy followers just to make them look better among other competitor brands. But these people are either not active, else the profiles are fake. Hence, buying followers won’t do anything good for the brand. This means you don’t have real customer support and this will weaken your social presence. Avoid this by building a slow and steady network of real people.
- Not engaging with audiences
Increasing engagement is important for every brand who strives to carve a space for themselves in social media. Many brands tend to ignore the comments and feedback on their feed, which will give an impression of disinterestedness in the minds of audiences.
When someone replies to your post, make sure your social media team responds back as soon as possible. The more you respond in likes or comments, the more your customers will want to engage with your brand.
- Targeting audience
Social media is a platform where you can connect with your target group or audiences who fit into buying persona of your brand. If you have not defined your target audiences, then the results will definitely be disappointing.
- Skipping a social media policy
Most crisis in social media platforms happen because of the lack of a good social media policy. Social media policies should deliver unblemished guidelines for appropriate use and outline expectations.
- Copyright guidelines: It is not necessary that employees understand how copyright works online. Provide instructions on how to use and credit third-party content.
- Privacy guidelines: Stipulate on the details of how to interact with customers online. Give your social team pertinent direction on when to take the conversation to a private channel.
- Confidentiality guidelines: Certain business information must be kept in wraps, specify these details clearly to the employees.
- Brand voice guidelines: Brand voice is important for any brand as it reflects the brand personality itself. Elucidate the brand voice to your social media team and work accordingly.
A company can avoid a public relations disaster by having a detailed social media policy.
- Not being regular
Once after creating a strategy for your brand, become regular with your posts. If you fail to post even for a single day, it will eventually affect your impressions and engagement rates. This will spoil all the efforts that you would have put in over time. Not being regular with your updates means your content can get hidden from most of your followers.
There is no certain thing that you need to do to make your social media posts and page top notch. It is all about taking care of each and every aspect of your brand and aligning it with the goals and objectives.
