Tips From The Experts: What Not To Do With Social Media
Everyone knows the importance of Social Media but how many people are doing it right? A business might use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr and every other Social Network under the sun. But if they don’t use them correctly then they’re just wasting their time.
So what is the right way to do it? There are so many guides out there, some of them with contradictory information that it’s hard to understand what you’re supposed to do.
To help those in need, we’ve gathered together some tips from the experts so that we can tell you what mistakes you could be making.
No Planning: So you’ve got a Facebook Page. Do you know how many times a day you’ll post? Do you know your overall tone or who will manage? If you don’t go in with a plan, there’s a chance that everything will fall apart.
“…if you don’t know what your goals are and what resources you’re going to devote to it, there’s no way to measure success.” Rhonda Abrams, The Plannng Shop.
Not Socializing the Business: This applies to internally and externally. Communication is key and if there is an utter lack of it within the company and without, then there is less of a chance that everything will run as efficiently and effectively as possible.
“Sometimes it’s about operationalizing their content marketing strategy. Other times, it’s about building processes and workflows that can help scale social media globally. And many times, it’s fixing disjointed content and community management practices.” Michael Brito, Social Business Strategy.
Having No Content Strategy: (Or the wrong one.) Your content must have some sort of value or it shouldn’t be there. It needs to be interesting and relevant to your audience.
“Not enough or the wrong content will miss the mark on actions, comments and relationship building. Content leads to conversations, conversations build relationships and relationships drive ROI.” Robert M. Caruso, BundlePost
Not Understanding the Hard Work Required: At first glance, Social Media seems like an easy and free (depending on your usage) tool to advertise your brand. But nothing comes easily, especially something that makes you money. Social Media Marketing requires planning, measurement, time, rework and lots of effort; otherwise it’s doomed to fail.
“Stop looking for the easy button. It doesn’t exist. Do the work.” Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer.
Not Investing in Owned Assets: It’s not enough to simply invest in your Facebook advertising or your conversations on Twitter. You should be able to connect everything back to a website or blog. Create a stronger focus on your owned assets.
“A strong email list, a blog or content website, and richer media assets (video infographics, etc) are all essential elements of a well rounded social media presence for any business. The branding, SEO and integration benefits are endless.” Jason Keath, Social Fresh.
Talking About Themselves Too Much: We’ve all seen them, businesses that constantly talk about their company and their products or individuals that do nothing but plug their latest book.
If you’re talking about yourself more than 20% it’s too much. Your fans and followers will quickly get bored. Put yourself in their shoes and ask if they would actually find this interesting. Share great stuff from other people and earn the right to promote yourself once in a while.
“Just because you have a Twitter channel doesn’t give you permission to fill my stream with YOUR latest blog post, sale, deal or promo.” Nichole Kelly, Social Media Explorer.
Using it to Broadcast a Message Not to Start Conversations: This is a similar principle to the previous point. Don’t just go on to a Social Network to shout about your latest product or promotion. This is Social Media after all. Get involved with others and start discussions. And don’t be afraid to cut back on one or two of those platforms, it’s better to be excellent on one platform than to perform poorly on all of them.
“There is no law that says in order to do social well you have to be on EVERY SINGLE PLATFORM. Time to focus.” Marcy Massura, Weber Shandwick.
Forgetting the Human Element: There might be a few bots out there but Social Networks are filled with real people. It’s easy to forget that behind every username and profile picture is an individual person.
“Treat people the way you would treat them in real life. Be human. Make friends. Be kind. And remember that whatever you say, no matter how casually you say it, becomes part of your image and your brand.” Mark Schaefer, Schaefer Marketing Solutions.
Ignoring Comments: A product can be the most amazing thing in the world and still get bad reviews and typically this is for one reason, poor customer service. A huge number of brands ignore 70% of fan comments and when they do respond it can take up to 24 hours. This is crazy especially since the ideal response time would be 10 – 30 minutes.
Social Media is a public forum and can be your chance to show off your customer service skills. Even in the small chance that you still can’t be of assistance, other followers will see that you at least tried.
“The faster your response time, the happier you will keep your fans – these are your customers and prospects. And that’s money in the bank!” Mari Smith, Social Media Thought Leader.
Using LinkedIn Just as a Resume Service: LinkedIn has more uses than just being your go-to resume. You should be using it to leverage Twitter DMs (direct messages). There are ways to share your expertise with others such as sharing articles relevant to you and your job. Offer up some comments of your own and show off your knowledge.
When sharing on Twitter be sure to distinguish between what should be public and what should be private.
“…even if you think that no one will see the public conversation between the two of you because of Twitter’s change in distributing @ replies, anyone can still read the tweets by switching to your Timeline view. However, using the DM function of Twitter can actually replace text messaging, and can be a great resource.” Jake Wengroff, JXB1
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What mistakes are you and your business making? How many people have you seen fall in to the same traps? If you’ve managed to avoid all of these so far then well done, if not then it’s not too late to make some changes!
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This new partnership will forge the development of the new “Socially Acceptable™” social media program designed to set a new and higher online standard for the funeral profession. The program will be available exclusively through FrontRunner Professional to their clients.
DISRUPT Media is a full service social media agency for social strategy and complete social media management for businesses. They help funeral professionals, worldwide; interact with today’s consumers by truly embracing the Internet and engaging in conversations about their funeral business online.
For more information on FrontRunner Professional and DISRUPT Media contact FrontRunner at 1-866-748-3625 or online atwww.FrontRunnerPro.com/SociallyAcceptable or email Ryan Thogmartin at ryan@disruptmedia.co
