Three Social Media Fails Your Company Should Avoid

Some of us have chuckled over social media fails celebrities make. But the truth is these mistakes are detrimental for all brands, business and personal. Most businesses are transitioning to online platforms. So, your online marketing campaigns should have a strategy for success...

Are you making these social media fails?

Social media marketing seems to change on a constant basis. That often leaves business owners struggling to keep up. If you’re doing your company’s marketing, then you might be overlooking important tactics.

Coupled with that, you could be making social media mistakes that are losing your business sales. If you’re wondering what these are, then you’re in luck; most of the social media marketing mistakes you might be making are relatively common.

Are social media fails funny? No. Employee social media fails? No again.

As author Dave Conklin has pointed out, they should be fairly easy to avoid once you know about them. Here are three social media fails your company should avoid.

Treating Each Channel The Same

Social platforms have a lot of similarities. Beyond the basics, however, they’re quite different. This is driven by the people who frequent specific platforms. For business owners, this will make a drastic impact on your marketing campaign.

You might think that posting the same marketing materials on each channel will work. That is usually not the case. Instead, you’ll need to cater to the potential viewers on each social media platform.

There are several things you’ll need to keep in mind. For example:

• LinkedIn is more professional than other platforms. It’s also focused on longer, more professionally-oriented updates, such as new employment roles, new hires, company news, etc.
• Instagram is focused on visuals and will need high-quality images and video alongside your update. Ideally, these are eye-catching and related to what your company is doing.
• Twitter is fast-paced, geared toward quick updates, and has limited character counts. Short and sweet is recommended. Branded Twitter chats are smart, and activity here can be catalyst to business relationships.

Keep these details in mind when developing and publishing your posts and tweets. You’ll need to ensure brand consistency, but adapt materials for these platforms.

Looking Like Spam

Many companies take to social media just to post links and updates about their services or products. A lot of the time, that’s all that they do. This is one of the worst social media trends. As a result, they can look like spambots, which makes them look inherently untrustworthy.

Even worse if all of these updates are focused on sales. Instead of taking that approach, try adding:

• Niche articles of information
• Local community news
• Helpful tips - text or video
• Customer reviews

That will let all who might be potential customers know that you care while also giving them the opportunity to engage with your content.

Ignoring Your Audience

Quite a few companies see social media purely as a way to advertise. While it is possible to do that, the platforms are also focused on engaging with your audience. People like to like, comment on and share great content.

Engaging with your followers when they engage with your brand can reap benefits for your business. Though this may seem small, it keeps your company fresh in their mind. If they feel ignored, then they’ll be less likely to buy from you.

Positive replies generate sales.

Wrapping Up The Topic Of Social Media Fails

Social media can be a minefield to navigate at the best of times. If you are winging it and do not have training, it can be very overwhelming. Keeping the above in mind should help you and your team optimize your online marketing efforts.

It might mean making some adjustments to your current marketing strategy. Take time to research and correct them. In turn, you should see much better results with your marketing campaigns.