Social media is an amazing tool we have at our disposal but it’s important to keep its power in mind. Just as its incredibly effective for doing good, using social media incorrectly can cause damage to your bottom line, reputation or brand. Here are seven of the biggest social media “sins” to avoid.
#1: Allowing Comments and Emails to Go Unanswered
When followers and fans take the time to comment or email, it is something to be valued. It’s important to show how much your company cares about their feedback, questions and concerns by replying in a timely and professional manner.
#2: Saturating Feeds
Posting too often will only upset followers or cause them to stop following. Posting too frequently can also hurt organic reach as social media platforms may regard your practices to be spam-like.
#3: Using the “Hard Sell”
Social media is not the forum for aggressively pushing products and services. Social media marketing improves ROI in other ways including building valuable relationships with customers.
#4: Not Showing Personality
What is a brand without a story? The content posted on social media should be engaging, interesting and valuable to followers.
#5: Posting Content Filled with Spelling and Grammar Mistakes and/or Poor Quality Photos
The calibre of quality is a reflection of your company’s level of professionalism in the eyes of your followers.
#6: Posting Inappropriate Content
Inappropriate content that makes it onto social media is usually unintentional but often involves commenting on controversial topics in lighthearted manners. Consider your intention as well as the possible reaction of the public in mind.
#7: Bribing or Buying Followers
Bribing is something that actually occurs and some of the biggest corporations have been caught redhanded! When the public gets wind of a company requiring people to use their hashtag, retweet, follow, etc. as a condition for something inappropriate (some have even threatened to charge fees otherwise), the resulting backlash is a complete PR nightmare.
Purchasing followers damages in a subtle manner. The spike in the number of fans and the resulting imbalance of likes and shares (paid followers don’t engage) simply tells Facebook your content is not very valuable or interesting which in turn decreases organic reach.
