15 Social Media Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid
Social media can be a great boost to your business. It can help promote your company, drive sales and foster better engagement with customers. However, if your social media strategy isn’t quite up to scratch, you probably won’t be achieving the results you desire.
If not planned carefully, your social media marketing activities may instead bring your company down in the eyes of customers. Here are 15 social media mistakes to avoid.
1. Social media strategy
Many businesses jump into social media without having any real plan in place. Social media marketing requires a clear strategy just like any other marketing campaign.
2. Doing too much too fast
Social media efforts often fail when businesses try to jump into all forms of social media at once. Doing too much too fast can be overwhelming and difficult to manage and maintain.
3. Expecting overnight success
It’s true that some marketing efforts have viral results, but more often than not, social media efforts do not mean overnight success. Social media efforts should be focused on building relationships, rather than trying to figure out what the next viral craze will be.
4. Social media ROI
Social media return on investment (ROI) should not be measured in the number of Facebook fans or X followers a business has. The number of fans or followers is only a measure of success, if those numbers translate into greater sales.
5. Autopilot
Creating a Facebook or X account and expecting this to be enough is a common mistake. Social media efforts don’t drive themselves and it’s not enough just to create a fan page without following through with creative content.
6. Facebook timelines
Social media is constantly changing and it is essential for businesses to adapt and use the latest developments effectively. Facebook timelines are one area that many businesses fail by not making the timeline interesting and full of important information.
7. Looking for feedback
Social media gives businesses some fun ways to communicate with customers and get feedback about products and services. Some businesses underutilise social media surveys for this purpose.
8. Using images
A picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of social media, it can be worth a thousand “likes”. Using images effectively is key to catching customers’ attention.
9. Where’s the blog?
Social media sites like X and Facebook are a great way to ask for feedback and start conversations, but businesses too often overlook the value of also using a blog to give in-depth information that is useful to customers.
10. Ineffective status updates
When posting about a sale or event, make sure that the post includes all of the vital information: who, what, when, where, how and why. If it doesn’t all fit into the update, include the rest in a comment on the post rather than in a separate post.
11. Handling negative comments
Businesses often instinctively want to delete negative comments that they receive through social media. Deleting these comments sends the message that the company doesn’t want to deal with unsatisfied customers. Responding directly to the comments is more effective.
12. Ignoring comments
Comments are the way that customers communicate with businesses through social media. Comments should never be ignored or taken for granted. It is essential to always respond in a timely manner.
13. Call-to-action
After reading your post or status update, what do you want customers to do? Visit a website? Visit a store? Try a new product? Offer an opinion? Share with friends? Without a strong call-to-action, customers are likely to move on without doing anything.
14. Posting too often
Customers don’t want to read status updates from the same person or company constantly. Too many updates mean people start ignoring them.
15. Too few posts
Businesses often struggle with knowing how often to post social media updates. Infrequent occasional posts mean readers will quickly lose interest.
