Business owners have repeatedly heard about the importance of social media marketing. As anyone with a social media account has likely learned, however, some people appear to have misunderstood the message. Yes, social media marketing is important but, as with any other marketing campaign, it’s possible to overdo it and scare people off.
Consumers have learned to tune out what they perceive as spam. Whether that spam comes in the form of ads for products in their inboxes or eight posts a day about the same event on Facebook, they have an uncanny ability to filter out what they aren’t interested in seeing. If your messages are being ignored, you’re wasting your time… and you may find your number of followers dropping.
To make sure you keep your customers engaged, here are a few don’ts for your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and any other social media site you use to interact with customers. Take a look at your pages to make sure you aren’t repelling the very people you want to attract by doing any of these things.
- Don’t post the same message over and over. Your followers get it. You’re having your grand opening or debuting a new product. If your marketing plan is simply to repeat the same announcement every day (or worse, multiple times a day) until the big day arrives, consider a different approach. Hold a contest or ask a different question each day in celebration of the big event.
- Don’t do all the talking. Social media is, at its very heart, social. Just as your co-workers and colleagues would be put off if you spoke constantly and never listened, so are your followers. Interact with others on the site and respond to tweets about things that are important to you. People are more likely to respond to you if they feel you are interested in what they have to say.
- Don’t engage in a battle of words. Occasionally, despite a business’s best efforts, a dissatisfied customer will air his or her issues in a public forum. If that public forum happens to be a social media site, avoid exacerbating the situation by arguing with the customer. Simply offer to make retribution for any problems and ask the person to contact you privately.
- Don’t restrict yourself to your own profile. Social media sites provide a prime opportunity to network. Regularly engage in conversation with others in your field. This not only helps you meet others, those other members have followers who may see the conversation and click over to learn more about your business.
For businesses, social media is a great resource to connect with consumers. By using social media sites in the most effective way possible, marketers can make the right impression on customers and ensure they keep coming back.