Social media has become a prime platform for businesses to engage and interact with prospects and customers. Problems arise, however, when company representatives, or even owners, do things on social media that jeopardize rather than help the business. Here are eight things you should avoid doing on the company’s social media page.
Sharing Too Much Information
One problem with social media is that anyone can share anything they want to share. Avoid sharing too much information, regardless of whether it's personal or business related. Sharing too much information online where anyone can access it can lead to identity theft. If you feel that you may be the victim ofidentity theft, you should use a monitoring service.
Getting Personal
Never share personal opinions or posts on the business social media page. It's important to keep personal opinions and affiliations separate from your company. Posting updates with political slants, religious beliefs or personal opinions can end up doing more harm than good if you end up insulting prospects and customers. Keep updates business related and as unbiased as possible.
Mixing Up Personal with Business Account
Most company owners or representatives have their own personal social media pages along with a separate company page. Check to see which account you are logged into prior to posting. One of the biggest mistakes that an owner or representative can make is posting a personal update to the business account because they are logged into the wrong account.
Criticizing Other Companies
Stay away from bashing other companies. All companies have competitors, but the business's social media page is not the place to attack or criticize your competition. It looks bad on your part and can cause customers and prospects to avoid doing business with you because of your actions.
Selling Before Engaging
Social media is an interactive platform where companies and consumers can interact with one another. While the ultimate purpose for a company to have a social media page is to sell to prospects and customers, selling should not be the first thing the company does. Instead, try to engage the audience to build a relationship and build rapport with them prior to trying to get them to buy.
Stealing Content
The content you share on the company’s social media page is one of the key elements of an effective social media strategy. The problem lies with using content that is not yours without giving credit where credit is due. Sharing content via social media is one of the primary concepts of social media—making information go viral. If the content is not your content, be sure to mention the source of the content when sharing it with your audience.
Going Off Topic
Another major mistake companies make on their social media pages is veering off topic. Your prospects and customers are interested in your business because of your industry. For example, a hotel's social media page can share travel information, hotel information, airline deals and more. These are all topics related to its industry and topics that its audience seeks from the hotel. The hotel social media page should not be sharing information on politics or the latest political campaign. This information is irrelevant to the hotel industry and could offend some potential visitors.
Arguing
It is inevitable that someone is going to post something negative on one or more of the company’s social media pages. Avoid lashing back at the individual or engaging in a back and forth argument. Arguing on social media creates a negative environment and can leave a bad taste in the mouths of your prospects and customers. Immediately lashing out and acting on emotion will not only make you look bad, but it'll make your company look bad as well. It could create a potential PR nightmare.
Social media can be an effective marketing tool for companies. The key is to making it an effective marketing tool by using social media properly. Avoid making these eight mistakes when posting to your company’s social media page to avoid losing business.
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