Common Mistakes Made with Social Media

So your business is thinking about getting into social media marketing?  Maybe someone, a business associate, consultant or friend has convinced you that you need to try Twitter and Linkedin?  Not sure where to begin or whether you should hire a “So Called” Digital Marketing Expert?

Before you spend too much money to jump into the world of digital and social marketing make sure you know exactly what your company expects to accomplish or you may have to go into damage control with your customers and network.  Here are a few key things to consider and another article that I would recommend you read that is more specific to using Twitter.

FOCUS ON QUALITY

First and foremost, don’t get hung up with driving how fast or how large your follower list is!  Focus on finding quality people to follow your company over just driving traffic!  It’s much better to be communicating with people who have an interest in your product or services than what I would call a “Compiled List” of followers.

Speaking to a thousands of people in an auditorium who don’t really want to be there versus a small room of customers and interested prospects should be your objective.  Be careful to measure the success of your efforts by sales rather than merely the number of followers you have.  Don’t get caught up in bragging rights of how big your list is!

DEVELOP A COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

Just setting up a Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter account will not determine whether your social marketing efforts will work or not.  The communications  you post must be of interest to the people who follow you or they will quickly remove themselves from your list.  For example, if your a CEO or owner of a small company, it may be cute to say in a post “My son’s birthday party was a blast last night!”  Save these kinds of posts for your personal Facebook accounts and don’t post these to Linkedin or Twitter.

Keep in mind that Twitter and Linkedin are basically business oriented while Facebook can be set up for both a personal as well as business.  Develop interesting posts about your products and services, testimonials, endorsements, new and exciting features and other pertinent stories about your company.   With a well thought communications plan, your followers will look forward to your posts and even forward your posts through email to other friends and colleagues or repost to their own social networking sites.  As an example, take a look at this video by Twitter to get a better idea of how to use it!

GET ALL ABOARD

Make sure your company gets every part of the organization onboard.  By this I mean, make it part of your strategic planning meetings with sales, marketing, IT and operations organizations.  Solicit feedback and reward associates for creative new ideas that can be employed in your social media marketing plans.  Develop key metrics that you will measure the success of the social media marketing efforts on and incorporate into each key leaders performance plan.

Every associate, group, business unit and division must have a clear vision and set of expectations or you may sink a ton of money, time and effort without knowing if your engine is hitting on all cylinders and running smoothly or not!  The bottom line is your objective is to attract new customers, drive new sales, reduce attrition and maximize profitability of your customer base to remain successful.  A team that is totally Onboard and clearly understands your social media marketing strategy and communication plan is essential to avoid confusion and frustration with your network of followers.

Summary

In summary, focus on quality versus quantity of your network followers, develop a clear communications strategy and make sure you define your company objectives and expectations and get all parts of the organization on board.  On my next post I will talk about integrating social media into all aspects of your company’s strategic marketing programs.  For more common mistakes made by companies trying to get into the social marketing area, please visit the following site for a good read!

http://technmarketing.com/2011/03/twitter-and-social-media-mistakes-that-drive-everyone-nuts/