28th April 2015

Don’t make these 5 Social Media mistakes

Cartoon man holding up a like and dislike paddle

It’s becoming more and more prevalent that customers are expecting all brands to be online, and with this growth in social media business profiling there comes a lot of issues. Whilst some companies have built up a strong following on social media, not all of them seem able to hold up their brand message that they once did with traditional marketing methods.

Social media is all about communication, and whilst this has it’s positives for customer service, this also brings a lot of heartache to brands. A constant challenge to act quickly and upkeep the right message can soon lead to a breakdown.

Here are five social media mistakes that you should keep in mind, so that you don’t lose sight of your business’ main marketing goals:

Using every platform for the sake of it

This is a classic mistake that we see a lot of businesses make, creating a profile on every available platform because its the ‘right thing’ to do. But in reality, it’s not. Yes, your target audience may be on these platforms, but that doesn’t mean your company will make the right content to fulfill their needs. Before creating a business profile on a platform, you really need to do a bit of competitor analysis. Look at how well similar brands are performing, analyse what you could do better and see if your brand message fits in with the whole feel of the platform.

Not every social platform will suit every business as there are different audiences for each kind of platform, who are looking for particular things. Platforms such as Vine are solely there for quick creative content, whereas Twitter has a much broader spectrum of users thus a wider variety of content can be shared around. A quick example of a niche platform is Tumblr.

Paying for followers & likes

So you’re a small business just starting out, and you decide to go onto a website like Fiverr and buy some fake Facebook or Twitter likes. You’ve been told it makes you look more credible. It’s the best thing to do for growth… right? WRONG. Stop right there! Whilst these paid likes will look great for a while, it’s a bit of a hit and run situation. It’s going to look really suspicious when you have 3,000 page likes and absolutely NO engagement on your posts.

There are so many alternatives to paying for fake likes. When you’re starting out on platforms like Facebook, the page like adverts can help to build up a good following. Make sure to direct your customers to your social media platforms by having links on your website and blog, print media (such as business cards) and post about it on existing platforms. Building up an organic audience that are actually interested in your business are so much better in the long term.

Spamming followers with posts

Whilst it looks bad when social platforms have been abandoned, there’s also such a thing as too many updates! We know, shock horror. Whether you’ve signed up to a service that automatically posts updates or you’re just posting way too much, spamming your followers isn’t going to help you get a good reputation!

Posting too often can become really repetitive, and fill up people’s news feeds. This could really hurt your brand in the long run, as no one will want to follow a business who sends them content directly seven times a day. Manage your time better by using scheduling platforms so that posts go out at effective times of the day, and make sure to check up on your platforms daily to see if you need to reply to any customers.

According to Buffer, you should post along these guidelines (and never more):

  • Twitter: fourteen times per day, from midnight to 10 p.m. Never more than once per hour. On weekends roughly every three hours, 7 times per day, from 3 a.m. to 9 p.m.
  • Facebook: twice per day, 7 days a week; 10:08 a.m. and 3:04 p.m.
  • LinkedIn: once a day, approx. 8:14 a.m., not on weekends.
  • Google+: twice a day around 9:03 a.m. and 7:04 p.m., not on weekends.

No consistent branding

Much too often we see smaller brands who don’t keep a consistent voice across their social media platforms, or don’t have the same logo and imagery across accounts. The whole purpose of keeping consistent across social media platforms is to build up a brand that people recognise. Make sure to keep posts relevant and on track to reach goals. If someone hops from your Twitter to Facebook and finds something as small as a different tone of voice, your brand isn’t going to stick in their mind as much… and that’s just wasted effort.

A great example of a brand that keeps in line across platforms is Innocent Smoothies. Their social media platforms are made up of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and Flickr. Being a very visual company these platforms suit them well, and they manage to keep their colloquial and comedic tone which welcomes a lot of engagement.

Getting too deep

This brings us on to a serious topic. As a brand, you shouldn’t get too involved in irrelevant topics that could cause controversy. We’ve all seen too many social media mistakes where big brands have got involved in political or world issues and either been insensitive, or got a bit too personal where they shouldn’t have. There’s not too much we can say about this, except for if it isn’t relevant and may cause problems… don’t post it!

If you’ve found this post helpful, head over to our Twitter for weekly #tuesdaytips! Follow us at @BritWebLtd.

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