Throughout the past few years, Social Media has evolved to be an effective and influential section of marketing for many types of businesses. Brands are now utilizing social media marketing to keep up with the modern method of growing their reputation, building awareness, and connecting to their target audiences. However, social media mistakes can easily destroy the reputation of a brand or a company, even the tiniest ones. There are many common mistakes that marketers can make on social media, but they are avoidable! Don’t be a social media fail like some others.

Here are several major blunders that businesses must avoid at all costs on social media:

Retaliating in Public

Businesses will get negative criticism from customers, it comes with the territory. However, nobody wants to attract bad attention. If a rude person begins to call you out over a post or is insulting the company, resist the urge to fire back. Social media is not the place to retaliate against a customer. Simply, don’t allow it to be laid out to the public. If somebody comes into your feed with highly negative comments, simply delete the comment, block the person, or address the issue privately.

Overselling Your Products

Pushing your brand too hard to your audience can turn them off. Try not to sound too promotional and don’t concentrate on only “selling” your products and posting only about your brand and company-specific information. The key for a successful business is to develop a strong loyal fan base; show your customers that you really care about them.

Ignoring Comments

An important element of your social media marketing strategy should include being responsive to fans and followers by engaging and replying to their comments on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Brands can gain loyal fans by thanking them when they share your content, give positive feedback, or ask questions. Engaging with your customers, especially influencers, will help your brand gain more awareness. Harking back to negative customer comments, it’s important to deal with them ASAP. If you ignore replying back, then it may lead to loss of credibility and followers. There’s always a chance to turn a negative experience of a customer into a positive one, thus earning another long-term customer.  

Posting Questionable and Inappropriate Videos and Photos

Think twice and think hard before posting photos and videos that you think are clever, funny, and witty. You and your coworkers may think it’s funny and should be shared to the public, but you all could be the only ones. It only takes one person to find a picture or video to be offensive or inappropriate to lead into embarrassment for your brand. It’ll be even harder to rectify the situation. Be cautious of what you post and of what your employees are posting about work on their private pages. Focus on posting content that is up-to-date, engaging, and relevant to your fans and followers.

Being Disrespectful

Social media is a vast digital landscape where thoughts are shared and many topics are discussed. The thing is, when you share something on social media, it’s there for the whole world to see. If you are representing a brand on social media, our advice is to limit any personal opinions on current issues or topics. If your brand has no relevancy to a subject, just stay out of it completely. Don’t lend your two cents on a political or social issue unless you are saying something respectful and in good taste.

Furthermore, if you come up with a clever caption for post, but it could teeter on being received as offensive, hold back and think twice before clicking “send”. It’s okay to be playful and jokey, but also be professional and smart. Several social media marketing campaigns from big companies took risks and failed, resulting in alienating their followers.

Publishing the Wrong Facts

When it comes to social media, publishing spelling errors and inaccurate information speaks volumes about a brand in the eyes of the public. This is a major social media mistake.

If companies publish the wrong information about a product or promote something that doesn’t come true then that will certainly lead to backlash by customers. Also, if you want to post or comment about something that is timely or trending in the world, make sure to get the facts straight. Saying the wrong thing usually causes social media firestorms.

Avoid Social Media Mistakes

We hope that you take these social media mistakes into account for your future marketing strategies, posts, and campaigns.

If you feel that you could use some help and a better understanding of social media marketing, BSG has the experience. We develop effective and organized social media strategies and manage pages properly for businesses of all types. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for you.