Your social media marketing is your immediate ability to directly engage with potential customers. You can’t afford not to do it and you can’t afford not to do it right. With nearly half the population of the entire planet using one social media platform or another, your business can ill afford to get it wrong. So, what are just a few social media potholes you must avoid?
- For your social media marketing to work effectively, you must know your potential customers and where they are. One of the fatal mistakes many small businesses make with regard to social media is that they take a volume approach. Once you have a profile of the type of customer you need, it will be easier to narrow your focus to those platforms where they are likely to visit.
- Don’t make the mistake of ignoring those loyal followers who have been engaging with you over time. You have to reward them regularly for their efforts to follow you and to share your content. Staying focused on the recruitment of new customers is all well and good but never slight those who have been supporting you right along.
- Don’t try to mirror another brand. You are your own brand and you must develop the marketing strategies that will reflect the uniqueness of your company. Besides, if you are just going to be a clone of one of the big boys or girls, why should anyone engage with you? They will just go to the major player and skip over you.
- Treating various social media platforms in the same manner is a sure disaster waiting to happen. Each platform is different and unique and has its own unique audience. In this vein, you must, quite literally, take the time to train your employees with regard to selling your social media presence. They must understand the company and the marketing strategy so that they can become an effective voice or you.
- The final mistakes you must avoid is ignoring the huge potential video now has and will play in the future and your data stream. You must integrate video into your social media content marketing and you must do it regularly. Nothing provides more immediate engagement than video. In the next couple of years, research says, video will account for nearly 80% of all content out on the world wide web. And, of course, your data and your analytics are your most important ally in all of this. It is the only way you can truly understand what is happening and what is working or you. Without your data and your analytics, you are flying blind and will be unable to effectively understand your social media situation and what you must do for future success.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
