6 Common Social Media Mistakes That Can Hurt Your Company Marketing

Are Your Social Media Mistakes Hurting Your Marketing?

Often when clients come to The Mauldin Group, the first thing they will ask is, “How can we improve our social media presence.” To which we often respond, “Are you sure your social media presence is your biggest need?” While we agree that social media marketing should play an important role in a company’s overall marketing strategy, there are often common, overlooked social media mistakes that businesses make that cause their social media to be ineffective and a detriment to their marketing campaign.

Are you making one or more of these common social media mistakes?

 4 Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes You May Be Guilty Of

Not Knowing Your Audience

Getting to know your audience (or customers) is crucial to starting out on the right foot with social media. One of the biggest mistakes that leads to issues down the road with social media is not knowing who your target market  is. To address this, it is important that before your business begins any marketing initiatives to have a Buyer Profile. This common marketing tool will help you to vet qualified leads and give you a road map as to how to find them. Essentially it will help you to understand your desired audience and where to look for them.

Using The Wrong Platform

We see this all the time. A client comes in and they have been posting regularly on social media but cannot understand why they are not seeing any results in the way of “Likes” or “Followers”. Just as important as knowing your Buyer Profile, is knowing the traits of your qualified leads and their online activity. While Facebook is pretty much a given and necessary platform for all businesses, a business such as a construction company will probably find it more profitable to gear their main posting focus to LinkedIn. Where as a bridal boutique, having a LinkedIn Company page is important, they will gain much more engagement from Facebook or a Pinterest Board.

Jumping Onto Social Media First

Social media is an exciting and very productive tool when used as part of a carefully laid-out marketing plan. However, often companies will jump headfirst into social media marketing with the expectations of it being “THE” answer to their sales needs when in fact they have much more pressing needs to support their marketing endeavors. For instance, it does no good to have a hard-hitting social media campaign driving visitors to your business website when the website is not user-friendly or does not function well. A good marketing strategy has a careful plan of action

Forgetting Social Media is About Being “Social”

When social media came onto the horizon, it was easy to see its goals…to create online communities that were socially active; to talk, share and communicate. However, seeing the potential of harnessing these “communities” to promote and sell products, social media quickly became a victim to what many consider to be spam. No longer were you are seeing conversations about social events, trending world news and general fun. And, quickly companies started to see a backlash. While personal reviews are important to all businesses and social media is the best resource for these, it is important to remember that your social media platforms are not the place to generate sales. Facebook, the recognized leader just this past year has started gearing timelines to move away from company sales posts back to community conversations. As such your posts should:

• Be informative
• Have value
• Be fun
• Encourage participation
• Be positive
• Solve problems

What Other Social Media Mistakes Could You Be Making?

Not Setting Up Your Accounts Properly.

One of the biggest hurdles we face when working with clients, is chasing down social media account logins. We have spent countless hours attempting to find the person who set up the company account only to learn that they have left the company with not trace of the login information. To make matters worse, often their email addresses have been closed making it virtually impossible to request a password reset. Thus, why many businesses have found themselves with disastrous outcome of having multiple “company page” social media accounts. This not only reflects poorly on the company but, can confuse and even create doubt in the mind of potential customers.

It is imperative that every business should have a Social Media Guidelines document or Social Media Policy document in place that outlines not just policies and branding for the company’s social media but includes a log of social media account logins. These documents should be a part of operations and kept with other critical business paperwork.

• The company owner or manager should always have access to the social media logins documentation.
• Anytime the person in charge of social media management leaves, all passwords should be changed immediately.
• Never allow an employee to set up a company social media account with their own private account as the primary.
• The company owner should always be listed on the individual social media account.

Posting Wrong

Contrary to popular belief social media marketing is not a task to be done off the cuff. Creating good social posts takes time, research, and effort. Knowing your audience guides the inclusion of valuable links or memes, determining the appropriate tone and language. Just as important is knowing the best times, days and frequency for making social posts. Your social media posts should:

• Never create division or conflict.
• Should always be professional. Edgy is sometimes acceptable if it matches your company’s brand and audience.
• Nevertheless, include vulgar, sexual content or use profanity. It’s just better to avoid it.
• Post at the optimal time for viewing by your target audience. Pretty much every social platform has some type of reporting measure to assess this.
• Be frequent, but not too much.
• Encourage engagement by commenting, liking, re-tweeting and sharing.

 

While social media done properly is an investment, the payoffs can be rich. It is estimated that in 2019 social media users will top 2.77 Billion! And while social media is about being social it is also about sharing. Almost 60% of online shoppers decide on a purchase after watching a social media video. And, 86% of women shoppers consult their friends on social media before making a purchasing decision. So, Being social may be the goal, but businesses can still profit by harnessing social media to their advantage.

The Mauldin Group is Ready For 2019’s Social Media Trends

Is your business using social media to its advantage? At The Mauldin Group, we use social media and a comprehensive marketing campaign to achieve higher Google rankings and deliver exciting results for our clients.

2019’s Marketing Trends are looking to bring in phenomenal, new opportunities for businesses in the Home Services Industries. And, social media promises to play a significant role. If you are ready to see how The Mauldin Group can help you reach your new goals in social media or any online marketing. Then, Contact Us Now or Call  (678) 582-9376.