In our last post 5 Mistakes Small Business make on Social Media we covered how many of these social media mistakes could be repaired with an effective social media strategy, reversing your social media efforts from being a time sink operation to an organised process driving brand awareness, customer engagement and ultimately profits.
While these mistakes on the face of it are not so obvious to your followers they will affect your social media efforts over the long term.
How many of these mistakes are you guilty of?
It’s not all about cute “………”
Too often business pages are only sharing photos of cute cats, dogs, pandas and other animals. This also includes motivational quotes. While these may work to boost engagement for a short time over the long term you will be driving your followers away.
Your followers want to be entertained but they also want to be informed. As a leader in your market it is your responsibility to educate your tribe. You have the opportunity to share your knowledge and passions that sharing these types of posts is taking the easy way out.
It’s these cute unrelated pictures that result in…..
Inconsistent branding
What you are telling your customers both visually and educationally may be sending mixed messages to your followers. When you are confident in your branding your information is presented to your followers across all media, not just social, in a consistent manner. You need to ensure that all the information you are giving to your customers is relevant with who and what your business is. Additionally you must ensure that the images you are providing are consistent with your branding. This will include colours and fonts etc – your design guide.
This will also apply across the other platforms that your business is using which leads us to…..
Platform Overload
Just because there are in excess of 400 social media platforms doesn’t mean you need to be on all of them. Once you have identified where your target market is hanging out you can determine what platforms to use. Your best option is to start with one and understand that platform and provide content that will build consistent engagement before moving onto the next one.
Many businesses set up on too many platforms that lead them to take on…..
Automation
Many social media platforms have now provided businesses the option to automate their posting through native scheduling. This can allow businesses, who are implementing a social media strategy to schedule status updated into the future. There are also a number of software options that provide this service. Some platforms also have pre-set replies to respond to messages. While this may help to return some of that lost time back to you, your customers want contact with you. A little automation will make you a more effective business owner, too much automation and your customers will walk away.
As customers are the life blood of any business, all businesses need a…..
Lead Generation Strategy
Keep in mind that you don’t own any of the data held on your social media pages. If these platforms were to close down tomorrow how would you get your information/offers to your customers? You should have in place the strategy to obtain and record essential customer information in particular an email address. The best way to do this is with a free offer in exchange for an email address. This could include coupons, e-books, white papers, check lists – anything as long as it is of value to your target audience.
This list of customers is your gold mine and can be used for multiple purposes from market research to product launches.
If you require assistance with repairing these mistakes across your social media platforms, then Baillie Admin Services can define and develop a custom designed social media service covering strategy, management and marketing to meet yours and your customer’s needs. Your business is unique and your social media strategy should be too.
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