As social media marketing gains more and more popularity, many marketers believe that they have their social media strategy down. However, there are still some areas that many social media managers struggle with. If you are interested in making your marketing a bit more digital, here are some things that you should NOT do when creating your social media strategy.
1. Don’t Ignore the Other People on Social Media
Just because your social media account is for your brand and not you personally, doesn’t mean personality shouldn’t be interjected into your interactions on social media. All that this really means is you need to actually be personable with your followers and others on social media. If somebody likes your page or retweets something that you tweet, thank them. If you feel that you can offer expertise or insight on a subject that someone else is talking about, chime in. Don’t be afraid to show your brand’s personality and help them truly get to know you. After all, that’s what social media is for.
2. Don’t Be Too Promotional
Going off of our last point, people follow brand accounts to get to know the brand and to create a relationship and an experience with that particular brand. They don’t want to follow a brand that is strictly advertising to them. Because of this, your social media content shouldn’t be all about your brand all the time. Instead, try to include both stuff about your brand and from your site AND things that come from other sites you know that your users would be interested in. You can also pin relevant information from your followers. This is a great way to stay engaged and to let them know that you are listening.
3. Don’t Be Misleading
Sometimes, among all the other brands on social media, you can feel like you’re constantly struggling to be one step ahead of them. While this may be the case, you should never create fake profiles/personas or share anything that is less than 100% true in order to gain the edge on your competition. Consumers want a brand that they can trust, and once they learned that they have received misleading information from you, your brand reputation is lost in their eyes.
4. Don’t Censor Conversations
When your brand receives criticism or otherwise negative comments over social media, it may be tempting to filter these out in order to control the content that others will see and save your company’s name. But this will not go over well with consumers. They want to know that their voices are being heard, and they want to know that they are hearing the full story when viewing your content. Instead of getting rid of the offending comments, do your best to listen to them, understand why the commenter feels the way that they do, and respond in a polite and helpful
manner.
And while these four “don’ts” are some of the most important ones to keep in mind, are plenty other “do’s” and “dont’s” to remember. Do you have other suggestions on what not to do with your social media marketing? Let us know in the comments!
Also check out our Ultimate Guide to Pinterest and Instagram Strategy
