Congratulations! You’ve been assigned to handle social media for your business. You’ve had personal social media accounts to stay connected to friends for years. How hard can it be?
So, you dive-in and set-up a Facebook business page. That wasn’t too hard. How about creating a Twitter profile too? You’re on a roll. You are thinking you could add a YouTube Channel! Why stop there? Pinterest doesn’t sound bad either.
So, you set them all the up.
DONE.
Now your business is everywhere. But where is everyone? Where are the flocks of new Followers with their Likes and Shares?Where are your Customers?
Suddenly you realize maybe there is more to this. You think you’ve done everything right. But perhaps you’ve missed something.
The truth is even though you may have followed all the guidelines and directions for setting up your accounts, you still may have fallen prey to one of the 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media Marketing.
Keep your sanity and your job! Learn to recognize these traps and avoid them.
1. Unpersonalized content.
Failure to personalize your content is the same as virtually ignoring your fans and followers on social media sites. Love is a two-way street and if you don’t show your followers some by personalizing your content, you’re never going to get their Likes.
2. Unused accounts.
You may have set-up several social media accounts across multiple platforms for your business, but are you using them all? You may be thinking, “Well I’ve looked at them a few times to see if there were any interesting posts!” Unfortunately, that’s simply not enough. For all you know, the algorithms used by the platforms could be working against you. You could be missing out on something that would skyrocket your social media presence. But if you are not regularly using your account, you may never know.
3. It’s all about you.
Sure, it can be difficult to read what other people are saying on social media, especially when it is about you. But it is important to take the time to read and acknowledge their comments.
Make it a point to check out the feedback from your followers on a regular basis. You need their feedback – good or bad. Don’t get upset over negative comments; use them as an opportunity to improve!
And if you aren’t getting any feedback, don’t panic. Maybe your followers are just waiting for something more interesting to show up on their feed.
4. Too many posts.
You may think that a good posting strategy is simple: if you put a lot of time into your account and post often, you will get a lot of Followers and Likes! That is true, sort of…but all that effort is going to go down the drain if you don’t manage your account properly.
Posting too often about anything and everything can drown out your more important messages. Fans can become fatigued and start to tune-out your posts. Finding the optimal post cadence is key to engaging your Followers.
5. Not enough information.
If you search for your business on Google, there’s a good chance that one of the top results will be your Facebook page or some other social media profile. Therefore, it is important to ensure your profiles have full and accurate information about your business.
Just as important is understanding that social media is a two-way street. Your page will include not just your profile and the posts that you create, but also comments from your Followers. In a perfect world, those comments would be glowing recommendations. But that’s simply not reality.
Take the time to learn how to edit and publish posts and comments with confidence so you can control what people see and learn about your business.
6. No links included.
Getting links for your social media page is important for building trust, relevance, and attracting Followers. But it isn’t exactly easy. In fact, if you are looking for quality links that come from other well-known and trusted websites reposting or sharing your content, you might be disappointed.
On the other hand, it is all too common for less reputable pages or sites to copy and paste your content without proper attribution or links. “Stop, thief!” What are you to do?
As long as they are posting on their own behalf (and not as a guest), they need to mention where their content is coming from. And that’s where you – as the manager of your account – have to stand up for your rights. When you find your content popping up on other pages without attribution, contact the owners of those pages to request proper citation and links or demand they remove the content.
7. Not enough activity on profiles.
If you are not getting enough activity on your profiles, you will be missing out on a wealth of information and advice from your target audience. A good way to boost profile activity is to use the Search feature on Facebook or Twitter to find out what people are saying about your brand. Don’t hesitate to join the conversation – even if it’s negative feedback! If you remain calm and collected, there is no way that any feedback can harm you.
Although Facebook’s Search functions is good, it can only do so much if there are hundreds of profiles and accounts similar to yours in the network. That’s why you should also make sure that your Facebook profile is linked to all of your other profiles. This is key for algorithms that are trying to steer people to credible sources like your own. Ensuring all your profiles are connected helps to legitimize your presence.
