3 social media marketing mistakes that can come back to haunt you

Picture this.

You order an item online and it takes much longer to arrive than it should. Also, some items are missing in the package. Frustrated, he turns to the provider’s Facebook channel to express his concerns and hopes to be compensated.

And despite repeated insistence, there is complete radio silence on the other end.

The experience didn’t feel good, did it? You think maybe this business doesn’t care about you, how you trusted it to give you a good experience and instead shattered this trust. So you do what any frustrated person would do: promise never to order anything from here again, and hit the “dislike” button.

For social media strategists, there is a lesson to be learned here. A social media marketing strategy can eventually fail with some differences and negative comments.

As a business owner, social media gives you limited possibilities to make a good impression. How you take advantage of these opportunities can make or break your business.

The proof is in these stats:

• 71% of users who have a positive social media experience with a brand are likely to recommend it – Ambassador

• According to a study, only 20% of social media posts barely generate any emotional reaction on social media – Havas Media

• 42% of Twitter users expect a company to respond to their query within an hour: Ambassador

As a social media marketer, the best way to improve your social media strategy is to first figure out why it fails in the first place. Here are some errors that you may have overlooked:

1 – Be careless with negative feedback

If you’ve ever dealt with a salesperson, you wouldn’t expect them to get defensive when you have a complaint or be careless about your concerns.

So why your followers on social media?

Keep in mind that every time someone says something negative about you on social media, the rest of your followers can see it. And they will be interested to see how you respond.

For businesses, this is a nail-biting scenario. But it is totally avoidable. Here is how:

• Put someone competent behind the wheel: Seasoned professionals, like social media experts, will take an unbiased approach to negativity and know that being careless doesn’t help.

For example, they know that not responding to comments like “Your service sucks! I want my money back” doesn’t really help anyone. A well-written reply, on the other hand, helps your reputation and calms things down.

To illustrate, your response should be something like “We’re sorry you had a bad experience. Can you tell us exactly what happened so we can make amends?” In this way, you are more likely to relieve frustrated customers.

• Be alert to mentions by using online tools: It’s easy to forget something you don’t come across every day. The comments on social networks are the same. You can’t track every one of them. No one emails them to you and there is no guarantee that followers will tag you.

To keep track of all the comments, you can use tools like Google Alerts, which notify you when someone uses your keywords in your social media fields.

2 – Use social media management tools to schedule the same posts across all platforms

Social media management tools allow marketers to post the same content on multiple social media platforms at once. Many companies use it to schedule posts. And it has worked for them too, freeing up the time they need to focus on other tasks.

But often, people use these tools as a shortcut to schedule the same posts across multiple platforms. It’s a lazy tactic and shows that you don’t care how your content is received by the public.

Keep in mind that what works on Facebook or Twitter won’t necessarily work on LinkedIn. Each social media platform was created with specific target audiences in mind. A 140-character tweet, for example, won’t sit well with LinkedIn audiences who expect more comprehensive posts.

Use tools to schedule optimized posts

To get the most out of social sharing tools, first improve your social media strategy. Take the time to learn about the unique capabilities of each platform. Limit yourself to two or three platforms if that’s what it takes. For example, image-rich posts are more successful on Google+.

Hootsuite and HubSpot are two of the many social media management tools you can use to automate posts and even see which channels drive the most engagement. In addition to automated content sharing, these platforms also offer free online social marketing training courses that can help you get the most out of each platform, such as optimizing your posts for different social media channels.

3 – Skimp on social sharing buttons

Business owners often reserve their best content for their websites. Content such as informative blogs, for example, position them as experts in their niches.

It also gives visitors the opportunity to stay longer on these websites. Perhaps you would like to look around to see what else is on offer?

Unfortunately, you could present content that everyone would love to share, but if visitors don’t have any way to share it, you won’t get the exposure you’re looking for.

To get this working for you:

• Make your social networks work on mobile devices: Statistics show that more than 15% of tweet mentions come from tweet buttons that are embedded on your site. This also shows that people share a lot on mobile devices.

• Tools to Create Social Share Buttons for WordPress– You can use online tools to create custom social sharing buttons for different audiences.

When selecting appropriate plugins, a good rule of thumb is to select those that allow you more freedom in the type of social sharing buttons you can create for different platforms.

For example, to improve engagement with mobile audiences, you can tell your developers to download WordPress plugin tools like Simple Share Buttons Adder to create custom share buttons for your web or mobile audience and add them to all your social media posts. . Another plugin tool is Addthis.

• Have a social budget.: If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Tools like Simple Share Button Adder are free to download and use. But if you really want your share buttons to shine, it’s best to have a budget and use it to buy your pro or premium packages. These offer more customization options and retail for around $10 to $100.

• Choose shareable content wisely: If you want to take advantage of social media, your content needs to be something that people want to share. Image-rich posts, for example, get far more shares than text-based content.

To illustrate, consider the infographic. Studies show that infographics are shared and liked on social media 3x more than any other type of content.

to wrap

Use tools to stay alert to negative comments and rely on professional help. Avoid taking the lazy road by ditching the auto post strategy. Pay attention to the type of content you post, how your followers share content on the social platforms of your choice, and optimize it for mobile devices to expand your reach.

It is a mistake to consider social media as a quick and easy solution to market your brand. It requires time, effort and patience. Learning about mistakes and pitfalls can help you avoid them.