According
to a recent social-media engagement study, Americans now spend more
time on social media than any other Internet activity, including email.
Social media isn’t going anywhere and businesses, small and large, are
now recognizing their online presence is an essential part of their
marketing strategy. Eight out of 10 small to medium-sized businesses now
use social media to drive growth for their business, and three out of
five say they’ve gained new customers through social media marketing.
There’s
no denying social media is an excellent tool to interact with customers
and clients, but simply posting something on social media for the sake
of being active online isn’t enough. If you aren’t careful, your
constant retweets and oversharing can quickly get you an “unfollow.”
These 8 habits are sure to alienate you on social media:
1. Always Selling
This is one of the worst social-media pet peeves, says Brian Paldin, CEO of the social-media marketing company, The Razzi Group.
Social media is a conversation, says Paldin, and no one wants to talk
to a salesman. Posting only when you have something to promote is a
quick way to get your company unfriended or unfollowed.
Instead,
Paldin recommends interspersing sales pitches with photos of your
company party, quotes, blog posts, links to articles with content that
provides value to your followers rather than constant promotional sales
posts.
2. Overposting
Posting the same type of messages multiple times a day is a sure-fire way to alienate your audience. Lysa Miller, owner of Ladybugz Interactive Agency in
Boston, a web-design and social-media strategy agency for small
businesses, recommends posting relevant content once or twice a day. No
one wants to see a dozen photos a day of pizzas from the restaurant they
followed on Twitter, but they may be interested in a new recipe (posted
once, not three times a day).
3. Oversharing
Sharing
info from other sites can be an annoyance to your followers. Avoid
sharing articles from aggregate news sites such as BuzzFeed, as these
don’t show any originality to your business and are shared too many
times online by individuals.
“People
don’t want to see a business oversharing those kinds of viral stories
because they’re going to see that content from their friends,” says
Miller.
4. Lack of Original Content
“Customers
need to know you’re interesting enough to follow,” says Miller.
Retweeting other people’s messages or posting articles from other sites
doesn’t tell the consumer what your company is about and shows a lack of
originality. Paldin says once every two days is a good time to retweet
or share content that isn’t yours. Focus on creating original content,
such as a blog post on your website or a portfolio item you can share
with followers.
5. Not Having a Strategy
“Posting
random links and content just to put something up is not a good idea,”
says Miller. Create a calendar of posts you want to share in advance,
leaving room for some last minute additions.
“When you’re messaging people, you need to know what that message is and you need to plan that out in advance,” says Miller.
The
best way to create a strategy is to look at who your customers are and
find out what their needs and wants are related to your business. Paldin
has even done surveys for some companies in order to create a
social-media strategy, asking followers to tell him the type of content
they would like to see on the company’s social-media channels. When
creating your social-media strategy, think about how the information you
share is going to help your customers be loyal to your business.
6. Unnecessary Tagging
This
is just bad social etiquette, says Paldin. “You shouldn’t be tagging
people in photos or in posts that are not associated with them.” While
tagging people in a picture or a post may help you to increase the
post’s visibility, it’s a fast way to annoy people and will quickly get
you an “unfollow.”
7. Being Disengaged with Followers
“If
you’re looking to get your customers to continue to follow you, you
need to pay attention to what they’re doing,” says Paldin. Since the
whole idea of social media is to engage with customers, Paldin
recommends following people when they follow you, like their photos, ask
questions and always respond when they reach out to you. “What’s the
point of having 10,000 followers if you only have two percent
engagement? Wouldn’t you rather be a company with 1,000 followers but 10
percent engagement?” says Paldin.
8. Reposting Too Much
Sending
the same link 10 times a day may increase your click-through rate, but
it can also annoy followers who see your reposts as digital clutter.
“People want to see activity when they scroll through your feeds and
your comments,” says Paldin. But if the activity is all the same
message, they’re going to see you as annoying.
