5 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

When done right, social media can be a powerful way to connect with customers and communicate branded messaging. Luckily, some of the most common barriers to amplifying social messages and boosting engagement are simple to avoid. Mastering a few basics can give your efforts the best chance to succeed and capitalize on what these platforms can offer.

Incomplete profiles. Don’t overlook your ‘About us’ pages. These sections are a great place to tell your story, provide essential contact information, and link back to your company’s website. As more information is included in these sections, it is easier for customers to find the exact business they are seeking. Furthermore, connecting a business website with its corresponding social media pages helps identify official accounts.

One-way communication. Social media is about conversations. While traditional marketing tactics (billboards and paper advertisements), force brands to talk at consumers, social networks give you the chance to talkwith them. Engaging with customers fosters relationships, brand loyalty and a positive reputation. Brands that dedicate time to responding to customers find the greatest success.

Spamming with sales pitches. Social channels require carefully crafted messages -- not direct sales pitches. Posting a barrage of product links that scream “buy now” are often viewed as spam which will discourage followers and limit potential reach. It is important to note that sending spam is a violation of many networks' Terms of Service and as such there is a risk of account termination if posts are repeatedly flagged as spam.

Being robotic, not human. Brands that use social media successfully add a human touch to their marketing strategy. A channel that seems on ‘auto pilot’ can make brands look detached and unauthentic. Avoid tools that automate activities like following and responding to users. These tools are not only counterproductive, but some of them may also violate the network’s Terms of Service. That being said, scheduling tools can be quite helpful to save time and reach the largest potential audience. Whenever publishing is scheduled, it is essential to be available to respond when fans and followers engage with your content.

Inconsistent branding. Posts should mirror the business and its goals. Staying on-topic and publishing relevant content will cultivate an audience of brand advocates. Consistent branding also pertains to the look and feel of social profiles compared to the company’s website and marketing material. By coordinating graphics, colors, and slogans, a social media presence will exude professionalism.

Social media will continue to evolve with users’ expectations, changing as new capabilities are added. Regularly review your efforts to understand what’s working and ensure they are within best practices. Businesses that keep pace with social technology advancements will be better prepared to meet shifting expectations and remain successful. Understanding these mistakes is the first step to avoiding them.

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8 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

1. Hard Selling on Social Media

With the way online marketing has changed, the way businesses advertise also has to change. The hard selling “buy this now” through social media will no longer work. Unless you show an interest in what your customers want, your customers won’t buy.

2. Creating Social Media Accounts for fun

One of the biggest social media myths is that you need to have an active social media account on every single social platform and that isn’t the case. You need to do your research and find out where your customers “hang out” and only target those networks and make sure you stay consistent with your brand across these networks.

3. Uneducated use of Social Media

Using social media without a social media strategy or any direction will not work for your business. You need to have a plan when it comes to marketing your business on social media and you do need to know the basics otherwise you will be missing out on potential customers. If you need help with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Pinterest, 

4. Quantity is NOT better than Quality

Another mistakes businesses make is thinking that having thousands of twitter followers or Facebook page likes is going to help their business but this isn’t always the case. Quality will always be better than quantity when it comes to social media. 10 engaging, purchasing followers is better than 1,000 that just follow you without any interaction.

5. Hashtag Overload

Hashtagging. You should be using no more than two hashtags per Tweet or Facebook post. Having too many hashtags in one post will make it look messy and overworked. To give you a real life, hilarious example of Hashtag overload, check out this video from Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon.

6. Non-Stop Tweeting

Just like using too many hashtags, tweeting too much will hurt your brand reputation online. The biggest reason why businesses lose followers or Facebook likes is because they overpopulate their community’s Twitter stream or Facebook feed.

7. Not Having a Plan

Just like I mentioned above about having a social media strategy, without this you will find it difficult to keep consistency. You need to know month by month what events you have coming up around your business so that you know when to promote them.

8. Failure to Analyse

As mentioned in point 3, failure to analyse social media activity will stop you from understanding what works and what doesn’t. You need to make sure you are doing your market research on your customers, competition and what people are saying about your business as well as knowing what works for your social media community.

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25 Mistakes That Make Your Business Look Dumb on Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the hottest new social media networks for small businesses and nonprofits.

This highly visual platform rakes in 2 1/2 billion monthly pageviews from its 70 million users monthly. Pinterest users also buy more of the items they encounter in pins than items on Facebook, and spend 70 percent more money when they arrive at your website from Pinterest versus non-social referrals.

But how can you successfully use this channel for your small business or nonprofit without looking dumb?

Whether you’ve been too busy to figure out what Pinterest is all about or have fully embraced the social network, there are things you don’t want to do on Pinterest as you get started or more involved.

To help you begin pinning your way to success, I've assembled a list of 25 mistakes to avoid:

1. Not including your business information. The first step in getting started on the right foot on Pinterest is to create a profile that is full of details and represents your business. Upload a clear, easy to recognize logo for your profile picture and use your business name as your profile name.

2. Forgetting to link to Facebook and Twitter. If a customer is interested in your brand on Pinterest, they’ll likely want to follow you on Facebook and Twitter too. Make sure they can do so by linking to these social networks within Pinterest’s “Account Settings.”

3. Failing to complete your profile. When you have a business account, you can select your “business type,” add your location, verify your website, and create a short “About You” section for your profile. Completing your entire profile is important for SEO purposes and helps you look more professional.

4. Using a personal Pinterest profile instead of a business page. If you jumped on Pinterest in the beginning, you may still have a personal account. But as a business, you want to make sure that you setup a Pinterest Business Page. Without a business page, you’re missing out on valuable analytics! Make the switch to a business page today.

5. Not following other businesses. The nature of Pinterest is based on collaboration. Find other local businesses in your area to engage with and stay updated on what your customers are pinning alongside items from your business. Also, look to other businesses similar to yours on Pinterest for inspiration.

6. Mixing your personal interest boards with business-related boards. There are actually a few instances where I’ve seen this done successfully, but overall this tactic doesn’t work. Are your customers actually interested in the recipes you’re considering trying or the table settings you want at your fantasy wedding? Probably not. Keep your business account for your business and your personal account for your personal interests.

7. Pinning images that aren’t Pinterest-worthy. Avoid pinning content that is too big, too small, too blurry or simply low quality. NOTE: Max image size: 554 pixels wide X 5000 pixels high.

8. Not installing the “Pin It” button on your browser. While this won’t actually make you look dumb on Pinterest, it’s simply something you’ve got to do! The “pin it” button makes it super easy to curate content from any website. With a quick click, you can pin an image that contains a description and a website link. Simply highlight the text you want as the description before you click “Pin it.”

9. Keeping your “Search Privacy” turned on. Allowing your boards and profile to appear in search engine results is a great way for new customers to discover your business. Make sure that you’ve turned your “Search Privacy” off within your “Account Settings.”

10. Using inappropriate pins or repins. Don’t forget that your Pinterest Page is an extension of your brand. Stick to images that you’d feel comfortable sharing with anyone.

11. Going on day-long pinning sprees. Posting too many pins at one time can overwhelm your fans. Try not to pin more than five images within five minutes. If you want to dedicate a specific time in the day for expanding your Pinterest channel, try to put at least five to ten minutes between batches of pins.

12. Neglecting to choose a category for each of your boards. For each new board you create, you should choose a “Category” from the drop-down list. Selecting an appropriate category for your boards will make your content searchable.

13. Not adding a pin description or link source to pins. You can write up to 500 characters within a pin description so don’t skimp on the information you add! Use keywords related to your business, words or phrases people would search for, and relative hashtags to maximize your description’s context. When appropriate, link back to your website, other social networks, and your blog to drive traffic to your business.

Insider tip: Pinterest is a powerful SEO tool!

14. Not enabling “rich pins.” By enabling rich pins on your website, real-time pricing will accompany the images that are pinned from your website. Pinners will also be able to see if the product is in stock, where they can buy it, and if your item goes on sale. Pinterest even alerts the people who have repinned your product when the price drops! Make sure you’re enabling “rich pins.”

15. Abusing #hashtags. Only use necessary hashtags and delete the rest to avoid looking spammy.

16. All of your content is the same. Include various types of content throughout your boards such as repins, content from your own website, content curated from other websites or uploaded content. Don’t forget, you can also pin videos!

17. Not finding a balance. Pinning too many images from your website or blog or only pinning images from your website or blog is not ideal. Vary the content you post to keep it fresh and engaging. See mistake #16.

18. Not telling anyone your business is on Pinterest. Use the networks you already have (Facebook, Twitter, word-of-mouth, email subscribers etc.) to spread the word. Adding a Pinterest logo to your website or blog will also help grow your following and act as a reminder to people who visit your website to pin your content.

19. Dumping all of your content into one board. Use numerous boards to keep your content organized and easy to navigate. Smaller, more specific boards allow your fans to quickly pinpoint content that interests them, spurring engagement.

20. Ignoring Pinterest Analytics. As a small business owner or nonprofit, your time is limited. Don’t waste it! If you’re not reviewing the analytics Pinterest provides, how will you know if your efforts are having an effect on your business? Knowledge is power.

21. You pin anything. It’s easy to get lost in a sea of stunning images where you might find yourself repining anything that catches your eye. Don’t do it. As a brand, you’re trying to relay a message that portrays what your business is all about. Plan out your boards and outline what message or information you want your fans to walk away with before you start pinning.

22. Forgetting traditional social media best practices. Commenting isn’t the most popular form of engagement on Pinterest, but it is still important to monitor what your fans are saying and doing. Look for opportunities to respond and engage with potential customers too. Also, similar to other social networks, always remember to stick to a consistent content frequency that works for you.

23. Neglecting Pinterest’s unique features. You can enable Pinterest’s collaborative function “me+contributor” on the boards you select. This function allows others to contribute to your boards as “guest pinners.” You can also create secret boards to develop content before publically showing it off.

24. Overlooking your website’s content. Is it pinnable? Make sure your customers can pin from your website or blog. Test it out before you encourage customers to pin your images and if you don’t have great visuals on your site, get some!

25. Thinking that B2Bs don’t belong on Pinterest. As a B2B on Pinterest, there’s actually a lot you can do to humanize your brand and tell your story through visuals. Pinterest allows you to showcase the people that make your business a success, industry statistics or news, your brand’s content or useful information, and tips your customers can benefit from. You don’t need to be a retail brand to be successful on Pinterest either. Just take a look at the Constant Contact page. I created our channel in January 2012, and in less than two years we’ve added over 15,000 followers! We even won some trophies along the way!

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5 Common Social Media Mistakes

To prove how tough it is, I have highlighted five mistakes that you will see every day on social media which are easily solved.

1) What’s the plan? What plan?

If you don’t know where you are heading, how are you going to know when you are getting there? Without a plan before you start posting on social media, it’s going to feel like a lot of hard work. Big gaps between posts (while you’re working out what to do next), and not being able to react quickly to interaction will expose you.

2) Its social media….that’s social media:

A lot of brands use social media as an outbound communication channel. This is using social media, but not being social. Unless you are a news organisation, this tactic does not work. At best it looks like you are disconnected from your audience, and at worst it feels like spamming.

3) No comment…

All brands want to avoid confrontation, and in order to minimise the chance, often no opinions are offered at all. This is a bad move. The top of your organisation will have a view on the stories of the day, and normally sharing these will help consumers engage with your brand. However, use your judgement to know what is shareable and what isn’t – see Chick-Fil-A.

4) Don’t ABC – ‘Always Be Closing’:

Every brand will want to measure their ROI from social media. And the temptation is to sell, sell, sell. But social media is all about building and developing relationships, so that’s where your focus should be. Nothing wrong with the odd sales message, but don’t lose your focus from developing the relationship.

5) What’s a metric?:

Although you can’t see this externally, it is pretty clear which brands have metrics in place. You should be tracking the level of sentiment, the number of referrals to your website and linking social media to your CRM system to understand what value social media is adding to your business. If you’re not tracking this (and more), you won’t know if social is working for you.

Most of these mistakes are fairly straightforward to solve, and even if it takes some time, avoiding these mistakes will put you ahead of a lot of other brands on social media!

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Social Media Mistakes You May Be Making

Are you trying to grow you business through social media?  Social media is a very effective way to widen your influence and get the word out.  There may be some mistakes though, that are getting in the way of a successful social media interaction.

Social media marketing is not the same as other traditional marketing methods.  Social media is a two-lane road that requires interaction.

You should use social media to build an audience, be social, and be personal.  Make sure you are doing at least these three things; if you do, you will be able to avoid the most common social media mistakes.

Here are some tips for optimizing your social networking experience.

Not Connecting With the Right People

Building a social media audience takes time and is a gradual process.  Don’t give up right away if your numbers are small.  Instead, value the numbers and people that you do have.  Overtime, your numbers will grow.  Determine who you target audience is or who they should be.  Don’t waste your precious time and energy trying to engage people who have no interest in or need for your business.  Find the right crowd and be patient.

Not Being Social

If you do not want to interact with people, why bother going the social media route?  Commit yourself to be engaging and personal – it’s the only way your social media efforts will be successful.  If you can’t do this because of time or talents, hire someone else who will be able to get people aboard and excited about your business.  Your approach should be to create excitement and enthusiasm.

Not Being Personal

Social media is supposed to be enjoyable.  If you are not excited about what your business is about and what you have to offer, how do you expect your audience to respond?  Find a target audience and be patient as you build your numbers.  Be personal and interactive.  Use social media to get your audience excited about what you are doing.

Remember that social media is not a one-way route, but rather it is about communication and interaction.  By changing your outlook, you will be able avoid some of the common social media business pitfalls.

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Five social media marketing mistakes

Building your company’s social media presence takes time and effort, and it starts with a solid strategy that includes goals and measurements. However, even the best strategy can be undermined by common mistakes that you may not even realize you are making.

Here are five of them.

Posting irrelevant information. Every post that you make as a business should be integrated into your business, your product and your services. Posting information that does not reflect your brand can create negative brand equity. Think through each post to ensure it represents your brand messaging and has a direct tie into something about your business.

Not responding in a timely manner or engaging your audience with interactive contact. Check your social media assets regularly. A brand that builds a social media presence, then neglects it, reflects negatively on that brand. It’s actually better to not have an account if you don’t have the time and resources to actively manage it and participate. And remember, the main premise behind social media is just that, it is intended to be “social.” Do not continually broadcast your messaging and use your social media assets solely as a distribution portal. Ask questions, share interesting facts and figures, poll your audience.

Sharing too much information. Do some of your friends post EVERY single photo from their uncle’s wedding? Do you know someone that chronicles his or her daily activities constantly? Businesses can be guilty of TMI just as easily as friends can. Before posting event pictures, identify the top five photos that tell your story effectively and post just those in social media.

Believing that social media is free. Yes, social media platforms are free to begin to build your business presence, but that is where “free” ends. In order to represent your business as engaging and interested, social media requires a constant commitment of time and energy.

Believing that you have to be everywhere. There are two things to keep in mind about social media: there will always be new networks developing, and business owners have limited time and money to devote to social media. I recommend doing your research in advance and choosing one or two of the most relevant and effective social media platforms to reach YOUR customers, and focus just on these channels.

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Social media in the workplace: Seven mistakes companies make

Whether from their own devices or company computers, most employees use social media at work — with or without permission. This could mean trouble and be very expensive for a company that does not take the right steps. Does your company have a social media policy in place? Is it well thought-out? Is it enforced? It better be. Social media usage by employees is full of traps and risks, and employers must recognize the dangers and take steps to mitigate them with well-conceived policies and other protections. Companies that fail to take such measures could face fines, prolonged and expensive litigation and loss of reputation.

Following are seven deadly social media sins that could land your company in scalding water.

1. Ignoring reality: People in your employ are using social media. Pretending otherwise will not be an excuse if problems occur.

2. No policy: Without rules, employees do not know what’s permitted. Do not convey the message to employees that they can do what they want on the Internet or on social media in the office or on work time. This “wild west” approach is very dangerous.

3. Failing to observe and enforce: If you have a policy but are not enforcing it or monitoring what people are doing, you are inviting problems.

4. Lack of understanding: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. There are many laws at play in this arena — slander, libel, trademark issues, copyright, privacy, FTC regulations, defamation and more — and you must learn about them. It can be helpful to consult a professional so you learn and understand the law, and then train and educate your employees. Then you should require employees to acknowledge they understand the training, the rules and the consequences.

5. Leaving open the vault door: Companies collect and store a lot of sensitive information from employees – Social Security numbers, personal information, credit card numbers and other data — as well as from customers. You must safeguard this information.

6. Failure to consider ownership of the information: Who owns the content posted online by your employees — the tweets, blog posts and Facebook posts about products and services? What if one of your employees builds a list of thousands of Twitter followers, then switches jobs and tries to take them? Those followers might be extremely valuable as potential customers.

7. Doing nothing: This is the mortal sin. You must create policies, enforce them, review and update them periodically, keep up with changes in the law, monitor your employees’ usage, train them and make sure they understand who they can go to if they have questions.

Is all this easy or simple? No. But it is the new reality. Fortunately there are professional resources that can help you navigate the process.

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Avoid These Social Media Automation Mistakes

When it comes to topics about business, like lead generation, appointment setting, or marketing in general, social media automation has come to be one of the most controversial topics you will ever come across. Supporters of social media marketing disagree to what many would attest to as “spammy,” or “a waste of time.”

Social media integration for marketing, say for b2b lead generation, is one of the most lucrative methods you can come across to get more sales leads, and even more sales. Allies of the social media automation will shout out that “It is all about being efficient!”

Social media automation can and should be done right. However, it does not mean that if you’re using a software or an on-line application to get thing’s done fast that you can’t commit to any mistakes. The following is a list of such mistakes that you should avoid when utilizing social media softwares for marketing purposes:

1. You thrive on the what ifs
   
   
   Yes, the possibility of failing is there. However, you won’t get anywhere if you just sit there and think about the negative stuff. What you should do is start thinking on what good it can bring to your business. In other words, start now or regret later.
   
   
2. There is such a thing as too much
   
   
   Take note: excess of anything can be bad. Excess food intake, excessive singing, and of course excessive use of social media automation. First of all, it’s called social media sites. Ergo, you have to engage with your followers, subscribers, and on-line friends. If you just keep on posting stuff without engaging with your friends, followers, and subscribers, then what’s the point of building an on-line presence in the first place?
   
   
   Also, talking to your followers and subscribers allows the building of trust between you and your potential clientèle to be far easier to achieve.
   
   
3. All posts have been scheduled… Now what?
   
   
   One of the good things about automating social media posts is that you can schedule your posts. In fact, you can finish a week’s worth of posting within a few hours. Still, it doesn’t mean that you should just leave it alone without watching it’s progress. You may never know if something wrong will happen. Leave it alone and you pose the risk of not posting anything at all.
   
   
   Take note that these are just softwares or computer applications. They are not perfect.
   
   
4. Your updates are as robotic as the software the you’re using
   
   
   Again, we go back to social media marketing requiring you to be as social as possible. Hence, when you’re scheduling and posting your updates, don’t write for your company but write for your targeted markets.
   
   
5. Your content is stale
   
   
   It’s just like engaging with other people; you need to make it sound interesting. If you make content that is so bland at first glance, then expect your on-line visitors to walk away with their money (and expect a high bounce rate from Google as well).
   
   

Be aware of these mistakes when doing automated social media marketing. One wrong step can lead to your campaign’s downfall.

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