Whether you sell herbal tea selections (did anyone say pu-erh?), fix broken iPad screens (I don’t care if it voids my warranty — just fix it!), offer wise and strategic consulting advice to overworked executives (less than 100 emails a day would be nice), or carry out any other business activity, you know — or will soon discover — that social media is an essential communication channel that must be cultivated and controlled.
However, you aren’t optimizing your social media investment if you’re making one, some, or maybe all four of these critical mistakes:
- You’re not posting fresh content.
It’s fine to share curated content with your community, such as interesting reports, white papers, or even the occasional meme. But the majority of your content should be fresh, original and relevant. And don’t worry about not having enough social media real estate to get your message across. All you need is a small blurb and a link to the content on your website (e.g. blog posts, Infographics, etc.).
- You aren’t posting frequently enough.
When customers visit a business’s social media account, they notice things like posting frequency. If the last post was several weeks or months ago, the message they takeaway is “wow, this business doesn’t seem to care much about this place, so maybe they won’t care too much about me once they get my money.” You want to be posting at least once a week across all of your platforms, but ideally several times or even daily.
- You aren’t going where your customers are.
There’s a good chance — about 99.9 percent — that you’ll create a Facebook and Twitter page for your business. Those are basic staples. But that isn’t where your digital footprint should end. For example, if you’re in the B2B marketplace, then having a LinkedIn company page is essential, and if you’re in the IT space then having a Spiceworks account is a probably a good idea. Don’t wait for your customers to come to you: find out where they hang out on the social media landscape, and go out to them.
- You aren’t regularly performing a social media audit.
A social media audit lets you identify, organize, secure and optimize all of your social media accounts — including those that you probably don’t know exist. For example, many businesses have not just one, but several pages created by former and current employees. The good news is that technology such as the Brandle Presence Manager can make this process efficient and easy-to-manage.
The Bottom Line
Although the platforms may be fun and informal (especially with memes in the mix), the fact remains that social media for business isn’t a toy: it’s a tool. As such, you need it to be a profitable investment instead of a costly liability. Ensuring that you aren’t making any of the mistakes listed above will put you on the right track!
