Social media marketing can be an incredibly powerful tool when used correctly, but in the wrong hands, it can have a devastating impact on a business. To help ensure that your social media marketing efforts aren’t likely to fail you, here are 5 flaws to be avoided at all costs:
- Not having a clear strategy in place
While posting things on social media that are relevant to your business is better than not posting anything at all, it can hardly be called a strategy. And all good marketing efforts require a clear strategy.
A strong strategy should include a clear plan of action, milestones, end goals and ideally, some sort of framework to clarify how you intend to run your social media marketing campaigns. Typically, successful campaigns show a sound understanding of the market, audience demographics and engagement rates of each platform and other factors. If this isn’t your specialty, hiring a digital marketing company to help you with this ensures that your efforts don’t fail.
- Being too boastful
There’s nothing wrong with being proud of your business and what it does, but continually boasting about how great you are to your target audience, instead of giving them anything of real value, could lead to your downfall. Think of your social media account as a person. Now think of that “person” bragging about their accomplishments 24/7. More than likely that person wouldn’t have many friends—the same applies in social media.
Boast when it’s appropriate, but remember to be humble and above all else, consider the needs of your audience and potential customers.
- Let bots take charge
There’s a time and a place for Chatbots, but they should never be overused.
While Chatbots have their uses, particularly for initiating communication with customers, leaving them to respond to longer conversations will likely result in frustration on the part of the recipient, and they may well abandon their query in favor of another business that responds to them personally.
- Failing to engage with followers
Social media marketing is all about the followers, and if you fail to engage with them appropriately when they mention or tag you in something – whether it’s for a negative reason or otherwise – you’re basically showing them that you don’t care about what they have to say, and that you can manage perfectly well without them.
Respond to all messages that you receive, and show your followers that you value them.
- Not having a consistent social media presence
By not having a constant presence on social media, and not tending to your accounts on a regular basis, you risk losing your followers and customers, and ultimately, losing their business. If a complaint has been registered, for example, be sure to respond to it so that your followers don’t get the impression that you’re burying your head in the sand.
Social media never sleeps, and if you value the reputation of your brand, your social media marketing efforts should never sleep either!
Social media users can be fickle creatures. Avoid the flaws listed above and seek help from an experienced digital marketing agency once you feel you’re in over your head. By doing so, you can keep customers on your side, and gain many more along the way.
