Your brand is an empty canvas upon which your marketing strategies move its brush subtly. Each stroke could either brandish an image which pulls crowds of spectators towards it or could make them turn their backs on you. All marketing pundits’ are aware that social media is equivalent to a ventilator that breathes life into their business, yes that is how much essential it is in these technology revolutionized times, and hence know how to move the magic wand to make their brand inescapable. Social media acts as an isthmus providing the path that leads the customer to the brand through the sea of your rivals.
Use of social media by CEO’s, business owners and professionals building their own brands explains why the significance of social media marketing is unquestionable. But it is more than just a fame winning trial and hence to tread the stepping stones of social marketing safely, getting an insight of what to avoid while marketing on social media is a must, otherwise it is like plugging out the ventilator by your own hands.
Here are the 10 reasons which inadvertently prove to be fatal for an organization or a brand:
It is irrefutable that social media is the best way to interact with your audience but simply posting something for the sake of being active online is not wise. These are the steps you must not take so that you could avoid some of the dangerous potholes.
Weaving your business and personal life with the same fabric
Imagine Apple CEO Tim Cook using his Twitter account to talk about the iPhone 8 release date and then using the same one to get a date, think of the damage it would do to his reputation. Once you use your personal social media for promoting your organization you should stick to it religiously or else you could witness the once full dam of customers gradually trickling away. Clients would be exasperated by your inconsistency and lack of professionalism.
Being haughty and intolerant
Once you put your brand or organization on the stage, you should be aware that now you are open to comments and views. The ball will not always be in your court, so it is best to embrace both the approval and criticism alike. Keep it cool and not lose your composure, for now, your audience is not just a handful of people but the entire world. Your reaction can go viral and cause quite a stir which may not be in the best interest of the reputation of your organization. Your ego should not come in the way of your profession and you should deal with the negative comments with patience and humor bearing in mind that you are the face of your organization.
Content lacking ingenuity
Your content is the key to your social kingdom. Seeing the same content, again and again, makes the customer lose interest. Who can go with eating boiled eggs for an entire month?
Content works as an appetizer, if it fails to stimulate the needs of the buyer, it goes down the drain. Focus on creating quality content that is shareable and eye-catching.
www.pinterest.comContent promotion is relied on when it comes to finding out what is new and trendy. Promotions can then get hold of traffic, social shares and links making it to the search engines and enhancing SEO.
Setting a weak foundation by having no strategy
As a marketer, your prime concern is to know how, where and when to connect with the customer. Also, when you are reaching out to people, you should know not only the ways but also the purpose. Standing in the middle of a crowd and shouting at the top of your lungs would only make you look like a freak. Therefore, it is best to know your customers and their needs and plan accordingly before taking any step instead of shooting aimlessly in the air. Your future measures should also be in line with the goal you have set. It will be helpful for you too, since, with a single aim in mind, your entire organization would come up with innovating ideas for a single cause.
Detaching yourself from the customers
The very idea of social media is to get in touch with the customers. Remaining up to date with their interests and answering their queries is optimal for your company’s persona. Talk to your customers, openly accept suggestions and respond to their problems in time. Interacting with them is healthier to build trust than to answer by automated responses which may often lead to humiliation if you are oblivious to their concern. So remember not to forget that you are a human and need to talk person to person to satisfy your client and to assure them that they are heard.
Falling into the never ending pit of greed
In order to get, you must also give. Provide your customers with invaluable blogs, articles, posts, videos and photos interspersed with your sales. Only then can you expect the reaction you are looking for. Always selling is not a good idea. Present things that they find worthy of holding onto instead of getting rid of you. Perks such as discounts and free vouchers help you get more following. It attracts not only the regular customers but gets new ones too.
Over posting
The purpose of newsfeed is to get various news instead of encountering the same post or picture with every scroll. You would not want to be budged by someone repeatedly once you have heard them loud and clear. For instance, you are running a blog about the upcoming iPhone 8 and marketing it on social media then people want to see different activity and news about the iPhone 8 features and specifications. And finding the same post every time would be monotonous. So posting the same post twice would be better an idea than posting it multiple times which might increase your click-through rate but will end up in you being referred to as annoying or unfollowed.
Proactive employees
Your employees who have been engrossed in social media individually more than you and are susceptible to spreading word about your company’s plans which might create a buzz. If they do so without considering their relation with the company they are violating consumer trust. There is also a risk that they might accidentally let the cat out of the bag by giving away your information and risking myriad information which might have serious implications.
It is thus advisable to train the employees about disclosing policy.
Being a chatterbox
Visual content tends to seek more attention than the arduous deal of going through scriptures to find your desired information. Tweets with images get 200% more interaction than the 140 characters. Who would opt for reading pages of information rather than watching a 2-3 minute video? It is best to adorn your posts with images, illustrations, and videos to make them catchier. Show your customers and prospective customers the enjoyable experience they might get once they get attached to your brand. Give them a peek of your world making it irresistible.
Clone campaigning
Being envious is part of the business, but one must ensure not to lose mind. Copying others campaign and piggybacking on their ideas to come back on them is not a wise decision since you end up stepping on your own foot. You must be able to distinguish the requirements of your own customers and work accordingly otherwise all you can get is a backlash from the audience for venturing into a campaign that does not even match the policies of your company or requirements of your brand.
To save your ship from sinking anchor it by avoiding these sins.
Social media is a blood sport in the world of marketing, and if you fail to go by the rules of marketing, your organization will most likely vanish or categorized in social media blunders. Brands which are socially inactive are pushed to the sidelines as they fail to build valuable connections. Companies should bear in mind that they should generate authentic relationships, have pure intentions and solid content which will eventually build trust and reputation of their organization.
Good reading! Thanks for putting it all together. I can see too often and so many companies – especially startups – making the same set of mistakes. Sometime all of the above listed sins.