Social Media Mistakes You should Avoid
The impact of social media
Over the last few years, social media has emerged as a particularly powerful marketing and promotional tool for businesses and individuals. Social media has proliferated deep into the lives of people, and the exceptionally large user base makes it a particularly good platform for marketing. Companies promoting their products and services on social media can be sure to reach a large number of potential end-users by default.
Social media marketing works on the basis of understanding crowd psychology and keeping abreast of trends and paradigm shifts in user preferences and decision-making influences. While it is a particularly powerful tool, social media marketing should be used intelligently and with due diligence. There are a number of mistakes which need to be avoided if you want your social media marketing campaign to be a success.
How not to build social media marketing strategies
- Professional vs. casual – The first rule of thumb when starting a social media campaign is to be entirely professional in its approach and execution. When a business has a social network profile, it is directly associated with its success, and all communication and announcements must be done in an entirely professional manner. Failure to do so might trivialize people’s interest in the business and affect its reputation negatively.
- Lack of planning – Social media marketing campaigns need to start with a concrete established plan. Irregular posts and responses do not enhance brand credibility. People have short attention spans and shorter memory and therefore regular communication helps keep things fresh in people’s mind, sustains interest and increases participation. At the same time, overdoing it is also not an option. Abnormally enthusiastic posting is perceived as spam, which has a degrading effect on reputation and causes major irritation for social media users.
- No knowledge of target audience – It is also extremely important to be aware of your followers in a social media marketing campaign. Followers are potential customers and also can be expected to themselves promote businesses that have provided them with good service. Followers need to be kept active and interested, their questions need to be promptly answered and their comments replied to. Failure to do so might cause disinterest and desertion. It is also important not to be preferential about ardent followers, so as others do not feel you have a biased point of view.
Finally, it is important not to lose sight of the competition, and treat it with respect. Avoiding these common pitfalls will add more value to your social media marketing campaign.