We all make mistakes when we're learning something new. That philosophy stands true for business people and school children alike. So what separates those who learn and succeed from those who learn and fail? Why, it's the correction of one's mistakes and seeking improvement, of course!
Marketers and business owners are integrating social media as a new component in their marketing strategy every day. Are you making any of the following social media strategy faux pas? No worries if you are. Just don't do it again. ;-)
How to Screw Up Your Social Media Strategy
1. Set up your profile, and ignore it forever. I won't call anyone out specifically, but unfortunately, I see this a lot. (And I mean, a lot.) I applaud businesses that take the first big leap in creating a Facebook Page or LinkedIn group, giving their customers and fans a new home to communicate with their business. But frankly, if you don't listen, check in, and say hello every once in a while -- it's not very valuable!
2. Ignore customers and followers in need. Now that's just mean! However, I'm sure your business wouldn't outright ignore a person. (Right?) More likely, you simply didn't see that person's request. That's why it is so important to develop solid social media monitoring habits so you always catch notice of these calls for support. Because even if you simply didn't notice a tweet or Facebook post, that person might just assume you don't care to help.
3. Discourage non-marketing employees from representing your company. Only marketing people can successfully represent your company, right? Wrong! By allowing all employees to tweet company content, discuss what they're working on, or announce special news, your business' reach just tripled... quadrupled. (You count your employees and do the math.) That's very valuable, especially when you're all-hands-on-deck regarding a specific announcement.
4. Have management review all social media posts and responses before publishing. At HubSpot, our social media policy is pretty simple: "Use Common Sense." And we encourage others to adopt that same attitude. When you're interacting through social media channels, the name of the game is fast and nimble. Unless you have a person dedicated to reviewing social media content who also has the response time of a tennis player, you're shooting yourself in the foot. Create a list of the type of content you want published, and trust your employees from there. You'll be glad you did.
5. Never encourage discussion. No way you'd ever want to hear others' opinions, would you? There are two valuable benefits that come from posting content that encourages a response: 1) healthy debate or discussion, and 2) the natural 'viral effect' that develops from heavily commented and shared content on Facebook and Twitter. Sure, it's much easier to post a link, and leave it at that. But the value of that post increases significantly if you say, "Here's a resource. What do you think? "
6. Give up after three weeks. "I'm not getting social media results right now, so clearly it's useless." Whoa, there! Did you even give it a solid chance? When you go to a networking event, do you expect to develop strong business relationships with all 50 attendees that very evening? I imagine you understand it will take multiple weeks, perhaps months of meetups before you develop solid relationships with every person. Similarly, it takes lots of commitment and nurturing to develop a successful community through any social network, too.
So what do you think? Are you guilty of making any of these mistakes? How have you improved? What other social media mistakes should businesses avoid?
Photo Credit: inkytwist
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Justin 9:06 AM on May 26, 2011
I couldn't agree more with the third point you made. A truly successful social media campaign will react to current events and interact with current customers and prospective customers in seemingly real time. Every minute is crucial, so if your tweets or status updates are constantly stuck behind red tape you will miss your chance to be a trendsetter and just be a follower.
Anne Beavers 9:29 AM on May 26, 2011
What a great article! All the tips are relevant but number 6 is the key. So many companies give up quickly. It does take time to build relationships and get the results you are looking for.
Caitlyn C 9:33 AM on May 26, 2011
Rebecca, some good advice here. Based on what we've seen with past companies, another mistake to avoid is: Use humor incorrectly. So many big companies- Kenneth Cole, Aflac-Gilbert Gottfried have come under fire for inappropriate use of humor.
Jennifer Schrader 9:36 AM on May 26, 2011
Great read! All that you pointed out here are a proven mistake that happens more then we would like to see.
#6 is one that is huge. Just like back in the days when a new website would launch and results wouldn't come in that day.. Giving it time and using the tools that are available will pay off in the long run!
Thank you again for the great read!
Andrea Czinege 9:50 AM on May 26, 2011
I couldn't agree more! It is so easy to leave your social media streams untouched for weeks, but here is a lesson I just learned today - keep it up because you never know when that leverage will be really valuable. I just secured a fabulous prize donated by a CUSTOMER of ours for our upcoming exhibition - because we keep up with their Tweets and we will actively use our social media streams to promote their involvement in our event.
I love point 5 and I am a great believer in this. Interesting that the website design company who built our website were very discouraging on enabling comments on our blog - I will not be taking that advice!
Gena Cornett 10:02 AM on May 26, 2011
I would add one more - spamming constantly. People use social media to interact, not to be bombarded with ads. So interact with your customers rather than just spamming your products and services at them.
Jennifer Schrader 10:09 AM on May 26, 2011
Gena great point there! Your fan base will kick you right out of your newsfeed if you over hammer them with products and such. It gets very unpleasent as I have removed some out of my feed because all it was were overloaded products & services! Ugh!!
Chris Norton 10:38 AM on May 26, 2011
I suppose another way would be to ignore doing social media at all.
I particularly like the one about giving up after three weeks. I have known people to dip their toes in the water expecting immediate results and then stopping. The truth is if you have a clever and clear social strategy and you enjoy it you should be onto a winner.
Matt Sullivan 11:20 AM on May 26, 2011
@Jennifer Schrader - I completely agree. Even if the account is the corporate brand name, it is still a person that's managing everything, and people have personalities.
If your idea of social media is just dumping links, but not engaging, you're a social media spammer.
Eric Wade 11:47 AM on May 26, 2011
Excellent post with a 'common sense' approach. Point 6: You cannot learn to swim by merely dipping your toes in the water for five minutes... 'stick-to-it-iveness' is a crucial factor.
Jennifer Schrader 12:39 PM on May 26, 2011
@Nick you hit the nail on the head there with them going full blown into it and realizing how much work it takes to manage a proper social media strategy. I giggle when I review fan pages and I hear it a lot "I HAVE A FAN PAGE AND WE MANAGE IT" well of course I look and no engagement at all. Just like a website, just becuase its there doesn't mean its working.
Kira Cooper 3:53 PM on May 26, 2011
These points (and the comments) are a nice distillation, esp. #6. One more screw up to add if your social media strategy is global: rely on just one "platform" to engage a global audience. I hear management ask all the time, "Why don't we have Facebook users in China?" (Well, because people there are on QQ.) Knowing the country/regional social media preferences and then figuring out how to support staff in the field who understand the cultural expectations to manage those engagements (see #3) are too often overlooked.
Loic Jeanjean 4:16 PM on May 26, 2011
While I agree with everything you said Rebecca, point #4 can be challenging to implement, especially in heavily regulated industries (Financial Services anyone?). I have explained the benefits of social media to thousands of financial advisers, however most are still on the fence considering the way SEC regulates dynamic content. I really hope that this will change soon as it could definitely be a game changer for most advisors!
Thanks for this great article
Loic
Jason 6:59 PM on May 26, 2011
Great post. Much of this is exactly the sort of thing we communicate to our customers. Especially 1 and 2 - Facebook and the like are only good tools if you actually use them; you can't just get one and hang it on the pegboard in the garage!
PeteS_UK 4:01 AM on May 27, 2011
I'm just starting with social media. I'm curious to know how long it took any companies out there to convert their first sale that was directly attributable to social media contact? Particularly in a service industry. Thanks
Thanks for the post.
eric 1:32 PM on May 27, 2011
our exec mgmt needs some support to envision "how to profit" from social media. we're a b-to-b firm, in the promotion media space, but despite some interest--there's no willingness to invest (time or money) into a social media strategy. can you help? point us toward cases that show real ROI (by ROI I mean $'s not merely # of tweets or fans).
Rick Demko 1:33 PM on May 27, 2011
Awesome post! I have several prospects that fall into a few of those descriptions.. If i'm quite about it and reblog your wonderful post, maybe they'll read it and a light will turn on :-)
Thank you and great work!
Theresa 2:51 PM on May 27, 2011
Here's another way to screw up your social media program. Get involved with user forums on sites you are selling on. I was recently libeled on a forum where the discussion was about "sharing information to 'help each other'". One the poster said it, my reputation as an honest businessperson was sullied. I would advise anyone who must rely on 'blogs' to avoid such places entirely and only post something which is content-rich and informative but which does not allow free discussion. In this world of cyberbullies dominating the discussion, such forums can only result in anger, frustation, and lawsuits.
Alkaline water 3:07 PM on May 27, 2011
I agree! For social media it's all about engaging with your customers and followers. That is the whole point of social media, it must be "Social"!
@rjfriedlander 4:09 AM on May 28, 2011
Fantastic post Rebecca!!! Well written article with some great recommendations.
Milemarx 9:31 AM on June 02, 2011
Thank you for great post. I liked especially tips how to encourage discussion.
Anne Patrick 10:37 PM on June 02, 2011
Thanks for sharing those useful tips. Furthermore, businesses should keep in mind that they have to be updated with the current features and new technology available online so that they can form new social marketing strategies in the future.
@StartingPointFL 1:13 PM on June 03, 2011
Number 6 is great! Too many people want instant results. You have to water the seed before you can harvest the fruit.