Social Media
Trey Simon

Trey Simon

Visual Designer & Digital Business Strategist

5 Social Media Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make

These days, brands are accustomed to using the social media landscape to reach as broad an audience as possible, but mistakes made online are often permanently damaging. See your brand go viral for the right reasons by avoiding the following mistakes.

Interact with your Audience

Too often are social media marketers tempted to become complacent with the convenience of scheduling posts. By queuing up posts on Facebook to be displayed at certain times in the future with pre-made content, it frees up time but removes the human aspect of engaging with your audience. When posting content, post with deliberate intent and fresh ideas. Don’t be afraid to respond to comments and keep track of shares and reactions in real time.

When Hashtags are Your Friend and When They’re Not

Hashtags have quickly become a standard tool on social media. Use them correctly, and the post can quickly gain traction and reach a wider audience. Misuse them, and your post can immediately become gimmicky. Avoid using hashtags on sites that don’t routinely use them (this may require some research) and make sure to put hashtags in all caps for easier readability.

Avoid Copyright Violations

Social media posts are regularly used in legal cases. When creating social media posts, many marketers are tempted to take the path of least resistance, using pictures they found on Google or elsewhere to copy and paste into an article or ad. This has become a universally lousy business practice with the bar for social media content at an all-time high and technology allowing copyright holders to track down those who infringe upon their content rights. Don’t break the law–but if you do don’t document it. Take copyrighted material down as soon as possible and replace it with content created or purchased legally.

Don’t Limit Your Content Variety

In conjunction with the previous point, don’t limit your reach with your brand or website to specific content. The average attention span of a user accessing your site is only a few seconds at best, so the more variety in the colors, graphics, and content there are, the more likely that audiences will keep scrolling. Blog post links, videos, infographics, charts, and gifs are some of the ways a site can stay vibrant and eye-catching.

Don’t Delete Negative Comments

An absolute must for any brand is to avoid ignoring or deleting a user’s negative feedback. Nothing will turn customers off more than this. If you absolutely MUST get rid of comments, hide them so that you aren’t called out for white-washing. But an even better strategy is to view the feedback for what it is: a chance to grow and improve the business and customer relations. A general rule of thumb is to thank the user for their feedback while assuring them that a solution to their problem will be worked on.

Marketing strategies aimed to suit online consumers better can be an exciting time for a company, but remembering to avoid these mistakes can significantly increase a brand’s online presence and audience interaction.

 

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