We live in a world of content: curated content, sponsored content, original content, and so on and so forth. The content we absorb can subconsciously affect what we put out on our own accounts. Changing the content you see on a daily basis can be as easy as unfollowing and following accounts, but what about the content that you post on your personal or business account? Here are three things to avoid when marketing on social media:
1) Not Editing
Editing your content before posting is an absolute must! Grammar, word choice, spelling, and so much more go into the message of your post so it’s important to make sure everything is correct before posting. It only takes a few minutes to refresh yourself on a grammar rule that you’re unsure of, whereas deleting and recrafting a post with grammatical mistakes takes a lot longer. Slipping into a habit of skipping over the editing step can have long-term negative effects. We’ve all seen big companies that post a tweet or share an Instagram post with a mistake in the caption and before they can delete it, the image has already gone viral as a meme. As a small business, going viral for a grammatical error might not happen, but it can affect your credibility and customer loyalty.
We are all human and we all make mistakes, even the professionals. However, the professionals have a team of people to overlook their content for mistakes. If copy editing isn’t your greatest strength, then you may want to find someone who can be your extra set of eyes before posting or consider downloading an editing program to help you out.
2) Putting All Your Eggs in One Social Basket
We’ve all heard the saying “you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket”. This rings true for social media, as well. If you’re only posting on one platform, you might be missing out on the connections you could make on other ones. It’s important to note the ages of your audiences. Audience age has a lot to do with what platform they are on the most. For example, marketing on casual platforms, like Snapchat or TikTok, might only work if a key part of your audience is mainly 13 to 35 years old.
The best way to overcome or prevent this problem is to branch out! You don’t have to maintain an active account on every platform, but strategically choosing two to four platforms and regularly posting will broaden your reach more than you think. As always, interact with your followers across your different accounts to stay active.
3) Ignoring Negative Feedback
It’s so easy to like or respond back to a positive comment, but what about the negative ones? Negative comments are never fun to receive, but they can bring attention to aspects of your business that might need a second look. Responding is a common courtesy, so addressing the negative experience and apologizing is absolutely necessary. How businesses respond can have a huge impact on customer opinion. When responding to these negative comments, make sure you are honest, recompensate when necessary, empathize, and remain professional. Go take a look at some of your favorite brands and see how they respond to negative reviews. Do they address all the complaints? Are they professional? Overall, stand behind your brand and be the voice you want your customers to remember when they see your logo.
The Social Life
Social media is like any other marketing tool. It requires planning, strategy, and confidence. Social platforms are constantly changing and updating, so make sure you are constantly researching and doing regular maintenance to stay on top of the social game.
Remember that mistakes will happen, no matter how many programs or people you use to create, post, and monitor your content. It’s how you deal with those mistakes that matters the most.
Do you need more help with social media and marketing for your small business? We’ve got you covered at every crossroad. Contact us here, or by calling (225) 341-4147.
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