Out of 7.8 billion people in the world, 3.5 billion people are using social media. That’s almost half the population. No surprise that brands are focussing their marketing efforts on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.
Is every brand out there successful on social media? No. We don’t have a fail-proof strategy that takes a brand from zero to hero. If there is one such strategy, every brand would be using that.
So, it all boils down to how you position your brand in this competitive marketplace. Then, with consistent and creative marketing efforts, success is not far away.
In your social media journey, you would have made some marketing mistakes and corrected them. But there are blunders that you don’t even know that you’re doing. What are those social media blunders? Come, let’s have a look.
1. Drafting clear social media guidelines & policies
You can save a lot of trouble in the future just by establishing a clear set of rules for your social media policy.
Ignoring this could result in a huge blow to the efforts you put into marketing. It is essential that you draft a clear guideline that explains to your employees what and what not to post.
Action Tip
Provide detailed instructions to your employees and tell them what's acceptable and what should never occur. Have an approval system in place so that things get triple checked and triple verified.
Failing to adhere to these instructions, could destroy the entire reputation of the company. Employees who have access to your business account should be taught how to use it properly.
2. Bad timing really hurts
Many brands have started voicing out their opinions on social issues and responding to current events.
Customers have shown tremendous support to such brands, and they expect the company to stay focused on the same.
Certain brands show no regard for the timing and forget the fact that bad timing can ruin the reactive nature of their social media content. There's no reason in contributing to an issue long after it turns irrelevant.
Action Tip
Keep a track of the trending content that circulates on social media and decide if that's worth speaking out for.
This might have a huge impact on the trust that your customers have on you. Do not support the topic just because it’s trending but because you are really curious and concerned.
3. Choosing the wrong influencers to partner with
When it comes to building trust and promoting a new product, influencers are your best bet. As a matter of fact, reports say that over 49% of the consumers put their blind trust in influencer recommendations.
But there's a negative side to this which can make you lose your credibility and push you to a place that's much worse than where you are now if you choose the wrong influencer.
Action Tip
Instead of putting your trust in the number of fan-following an influencer has, check whether the nature of his/her audience aligns with your target audience.
You should also keep an eye on the influencer's overall character and the values that he/she brings to the table.
4. Deceiving your audience by sharing false information
Misinformation has become a part of the social media experience and sadly, some brands are doing it without even knowing.
This shows that the person who posted this or his employee hasn't put enough effort into the research.
Action Tip
Frequent and authentic research is the only way to prevent mistakes like these from happening. You will have to perform a thorough background check of your source.
You need to appoint someone in your team who can go through all the documents and proof-read them for you.
5. Not doing cross-platform posting properly
When you share the content on several social media platforms, it is essential to make changes to them which would allow them to stand out.
This cross-posting will keep your social profile active and will also make it a lot easier for you to share content. But on the flip side, this could destroy your reputation in the future if your posts seem amateur and incompetent.
Action Tip
You should always retain your brand's identity but customize your content and messages to better suit the social media platform you're currently using.
Instead of posting the same content on all the platforms, try making your posts unique from one platform to the next. A small change to the format can go a long way. Try and test different post formats and see what works.
6. Annoying your audience with self-promotions
Marketers should start paying attention to the fact that most users hate the pages that are full of self-promotions.
As a marketer, you should also be focusing on keeping the audience interested in your page by catering to their taste and needs. Over-promoting something usually does the opposite of what you've intended.
Action Tip
Apart from trying to generate sales on social media, shift your focus to developing a lifestyle for your product.
In this way, you have a higher chance of keeping your audience interested. You should also never bring up irrelevant events and situations to sell your product or brand.
7. “More followers = Good publicity” concept
You have to understand that having a huge number of followers has nothing to do with driving attention to your brand.
As an online brand, attention is everything you need but there's a catch. Positive attention is completely different from what you hear usually and is also the only thing that matters.
Action Tip
Marketers have to understand that there's no need for the content to be offensive and provocative in order to grab a user's attention.
You have to perform proper research before writing and sharing your content. Your content should never criticize, hurt, upset or insult others of a particular race, sex, ethnicity, culture, etc.
8. Hasty & pointless replies to the comments
To keep up the image of your brand, avoid the urge to reply to your comments as fast as possible.
You might be casting the wrong shade on your brand's credibility if users start finding your answers irrelevant. Never risk the authenticity of your answers just for the sake of replying to the comments.
Action Tip
Make sure you do your research and take some time to think about your answer. Most importantly, try to get a sense of that question properly to make sure you're not answering the wrong question.
Conclusion
If you avoid these 8 social media blunders, then we are sure that your brand credibility will increase. The best part is, you earn your customer’s trust.
Keep track of the events happening in the online and offline world. The timely opinion will make all the difference. Don’t over-promote your business, that’ll turn off your audience.
Hope this blog post helped you improve your marketing efforts by avoiding major social media mistakes.
