The Mistakes of Social Media

“I thought social media was supposed to enhance my brand!”

The promise of social media is powerful. It promises the ability to engage in the largest conversation in the world, reinforcing your brand and creating profitable customers.

The reality is quite often the opposite.  Boring, retread Facebook pages, a lack of engagement, and a failure to influence anyone to actually spend money on your products.  Too often it results in greater complexity and increased costs with little to show for it.

If you don’t want to be another brand complaining about social media, then pay attention to this list of the three most common mistakes in social media – and avoid them:

  • Updating social media irregularly—or not at all.  The key to successful social media is consistency.  You must be there regularly, even when you’re not seeing direct actions in response.  Think about it, how effective would your outreach efforts be if you either never let anyone talk, or failed to say anything.  You must “build your well, before you’re thirsty.”  Don’t wait until the big event to get things started.
  • Making every conversation a one-way conversation. If you’re not engaging you’re advertising.  Many companies are happy to sign up to various social media outlets – and then proceed to simply make these accounts an advanced type of company newsletter. Remember, the key word in social media is “social.”  You must build relationships.  This means initiating conversations, responding to them and sharing. 
  • Nothing behind your tweets, updates or posts. Social media is a tactic.  It only works when it’s part of a larger strategy.  If you don’t have content worth paying attention to, then no one is going to give you the valuable attention (or access to their wallet) you desire.  Social media is a great enhancement to an experiential marketing campaign.  Sharing pictures, videos and contests from your experiential marketing campaigns drives word-of-mouth.   Utilize videos, stories, blog posts and highlights to keep people interested and engaged. 

Done right, social media is a powerful extension of your marketing and outreach strategy.  When the proper effort is put forth, social media enables you keep your company’s reputation fresh, enhances your customer experience and multiplies the bang for your outreach buck.