When building a business, social media like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook can be powerful tools to help you find new customers and communicate effectively with existing clientele.
While there are many ways to find success, there are just as many ways to make catastrophic mistakes.
Even a small error has the potential to cost your organization a pretty penny.
To make the most of your social media presence, here are four common social media mistakes you should avoid at all costs:
1. Not Having a Well-Defined Strategy
Walking a path without direction can get you lost. This same logic applies to your companys social media strategy.
What should your social media strategy include?
- Your Goal: Are you aiming for overall reach, engagement, or leads? Whether you want to improve sales or build awareness of a new product, having your goal written down can hone in your focus.
- Your Audience: Defining your audience will help to guide every other aspect of your strategy. Are you targeting families or individuals? Is it a more rural or metropolitan market?
- Your Brand Voice: Once you have established your audience, you must determine your voice and approach. Will your brand be funny? Playful? Formal? Make sure to remain consistent with your branding message throughout.
- Your Content Plan: Plan your content strategy in advance and keep in mind seasonality, sales events, and/or holidays. Consider whats happening in your market and create engaging community-related content.
Your social media plan does not need to be lengthy to be effective. Even a brief one-page document can keep you on track.
2. Failing to Interact with Your Followers
People usually follow their favorite brands on Facebook and Instagram to connect with them on a more personal level. As such, if you want to succeed on social media, you must engage with your followers on a regular basis. This means:
- Replying to their comments as promptly as possible.
- Asking them relevant thought-provoking questions.
- Responding to direct messages in a friendly and professional manner.
- Conducting fun surveys to gather their opinions.
Dont be a robot! Add the human touch by connecting with them in a meaningful way and create customers for life.
3. Inappropriately Dealing with Negative Feedback
Every business encounters negative reviews.
Negative feedback isnt always the most damaging. But, how you respond can make or break your reputation.
If you become defensive or respond inappropriately, youll likely make the situation worse. FZA Digital generally recommends dealing with negative comments and reviews on social media by:
- Acknowledge their criticism, even if you disagree
- Addressing their concerns as quickly as possible
- Explaining how you will prevent the issue from happening again
- Connect with the customer offline, if necessary
By taking these steps, you can help the user with their problem and show your audience that you genuinely care about their concerns.
4. Being Overly Salesy
Social media platforms are a great place to sell your company’s products and generate leads. However, its usually wise to avoid making sales the sole purpose of your Facebook and Instagram pages.
Social media users typically find pages that focus entirely on selling to be boring or annoying – feelings that may convince them to unfollow or block.
This doesnt mean you should refrain from making sales posts entirely. It just means that you should blend them in with other kinds of posts. Dont be a spammer!
At FZA Digital, we suggest making no more than 15 percent of your social media posts sales-related. The rest should typically focus on entertaining, educating, and engaging with your followers.
Need Some More Guidance? FZA Digital Can Help
FZA Digital has been helping businesses manage their social media pages for years. We know what it takes to produce extraordinary results without making any costly mistakes along the way.
If you would like to have us provide you with guidance and assistance you need to successfully manage your pages, please do not hesitate to call us at (424) 229-2923 or contact us online.