The benefits of using various social media platforms to market your business are plentiful, with quite a few channels to choose from, and a large captive audience just waiting to view your content.
However, it’s never as easy as most people assume. You can’t just open a social media account, post something arbitrarily, and expect excellent results. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into engaging an online audience.
And while the best of the best put in the work, most companies fail to use social media to their advantage. In fact, a lot of them are even shooting themselves in the foot and losing sales.
Here are some of the biggest social media faux pas that will ruin your sales, and how to avoid them.
Posting Once in a Blue Moon
This looks like a fairly simple mistake, but it happens much too often. You set up a profile, add all the right visuals, info, and a few pictures, then you call it a day.
Maybe you post something about your products twice a week, a funny quip or quote once every 8-10 days, and that’s it.
That’s why “how to increase engagement on social media” is probably the most searched thing on Google right now. People just tend to forget that social media is now a daily task.
You don’t have to post every single day, but create a schedule and stick to it. Maybe it’s one post a day on Twitter or Facebook and twice a week on Instagram.
You might be more comfortable with 2-3 times a week on all platforms, but on different days. Whatever you do, make sure you post regularly and prepare some content in advance.
Being Unresponsive to Comments and Messages
This point ties in nicely with the last one – if you’re not there you’re not responding to queries. The problem is that even those with a regular posting schedule can be unresponsive.
For your average customer or potential customer, this feels like talking to a brick wall.
You are obviously there every day to post stuff, but you won’t give them the common courtesy of responding with a few lines of text. It can be frustrating and push your target audience away.
Be sure to answer questions in comments or private messages, and engage in conversations to spark more engagement. Avoid cookie-cutter automated responses and make things more personal.
Spamming Promotional Material Every Day
On the flip side of making a company social media profile a ghost town, we have people who turn it into a flee market. You know the kind – our products this, our products that, buy now, NEW DEALS!
If that’s all you have to post, and you do it 2-3 times a day, people will get frustrated and remove you from their feed.
The whole point of social media is to promote your brand, but you have to do it tactfully. Post something of value, spark conversations, and then throw in a promotional post here and there.
For every 3-4 funny, informative, and news-based posts you can have one promotional post. And make it look fun and exciting.
Offer giveaways for users, and share photos of them using your products. Show your products used in fun and creative ways or poke some fun at the industry. Add some variety to your posts.
Having No Brand Persona
If your content and brand voice is wildly different in tone and style from one day to the next, you have a serious branding issue.
On the other hand, bland and monotone posts like “Check out this new study” or “Here’s XY industry news” are just as bad. This is where automated posting fails miserably.
The best thing to do is to develop a consistent brand persona and train an actual employee to manage your social media profiles.
With training software like Pro Profs, you can use an employee training template to create a solid course within a couple of hours. Once you’ve v
Now you’ll have a strong brand persona and a capable employee to make sure that it shines through in every post.
Trying too Hard Show that Your “Hip and Cool”
While trying to keep up with the latest trends and speak your audience’s language is a good thing, you can go a bit overboard with it.
Some brands have had success with brandjacking, which means hopping on a popular new trend and creating fun content within the given context.
However, most of these attempts end up being uninspired, derivative, and even just plain cringeworthy.
It’s like an aging dad fighting his midlife crisis by showing his supposed pop culture knowledge and jamming a few slang words into his normal vocabulary.
Show your audience that you understand their needs, but don’t contort your brand voice just to use a new fad for a few likes.
Being Rude when Faced with Critique
The last nail in your bad social media management coffin is rudeness and outright attacking your audience.
Sure, some people are obnoxious and aggressive for no reason, but you don’t want your loyal customers to think that you can snap at them at any time.
Everyone sees your comments, and they won’t appreciate a brand behaving in an unprofessional manner.
On top of that, you might end up unloading on someone who had a real problem and is pointing you towards a bigger issue with your quality control or customer service.
Look at negative feedback as a chance to improve. Being polite and addressing an issue quickly will turn an irritated customer into a brand ambassador. There are tons of great examples to inspire you.
In Conclusion
Branding on social media is an ever-evolving art form, and it takes a few hands-on experiences to truly master.
However, as long as you avoid these six major mistakes and develop a consistent brand voice, you’ll be just fine.
