I see this nearly every day. I come across the Facebook page of one company, the Twitter feed of another brand, and it’s right there—clear for anyone to see. It’s the social media mistakes that many businesses not only repeat, but make no effort to correct either.
Just one of these three errors is all it takes for people to realize that you don’t care enough about your business to take its social media presence seriously.
1. Undermining the importance of a social media presence.
Probably the most passive social media mistake that you can make is not being on social media.
Sure, many businesses can and have been doing just fine without any digital activity. But customers are increasingly referring to online channels before making a purchasing decision.
Not to mention that these days, social media is crucial to brand building (especially when you are a new business or startup).
2. Regarding social media as just another sales channel.
This is a bad habit that larger and longer-established companies tend to have. I’m sick of seeing businesses constantly advertising their products or services through social media, without proving anything of value to their followers.
They talk at fans and followers instead of talking to them.
They forget that social media is supposed to be “social”; instead of broadcasting, they should be trying to have an authentic conversation with their audience.
3. Not dedicating time & resources to managing social activity.
Some companies either can’t or won’t spend some effort on their various channels.
You need someone to set up a social media business plan, to create a content strategy, to engage with your audience and to do damage control if/when things go wrong. (Brands that take their reputation for granted are on a slippery slope because in the digital world, one’s credibility can vanish in a few moments of stupidity.)
But what especially irks me are the businesses that created social accounts, post a few sporadic pieces of content, and then abandoned these profiles. Dead pages don’t look good to a prospective customer (or anybody for that matter)!
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What are the most common social media mistakes that you come across?
Completely agree with the mistakes you have mentioned above.
These are the most common social media mistakes which people make. Social medias are the 2nd best places in drive potential customers and readers after search engines.
Along with these mistakes, not providing regular updates are also a common mistake as I think. I have seen so many brands on Facebook who never takes care of their audience and that’s why they don’t have engagement.
People always want entertainment or something which can keep themeselves busy and If any brand isn’t providing such type of content then there might be the higher chances that the audience will forget the name of their brand.
So to keep their name in their audience mind, they must have to provide such content which can help, entertain and keep their audience busy.
I am glad that you have mentioned these major social media mistakes. So Thanks for sharing it with us. 😀
Thanks for your comment David! Definitely agree – pages needs to post high-quality content often and regularly, as well as engage with their followers. If you’re interested, I talk more about this in these posts:
https://havepresence.com/social-media-scrapyard-businesses-go-rot/
https://havepresence.com/social-social-media-marketing/