7 Social Media Habits that are Bad for Business
Social media is one of the biggest marketing tools today. It gives you an opportunity to connect and communicate with people from across the globe, build a sizable following and supportive community, and help your business grow. When used properly, you are bound to witness a positive ROI. But if you don’t tread carefully, you may alienate the very customers you’re trying to attract. This can hurt your business and keep you from accomplishing your goals.
Whether you’re running a Fortune 500 company or a startup business, avoid these social media habits at any cost. Quit these habits or you run the risk of annoying people, losing fans and followers or damaging your brand’s reputation.
Overdoing the posting
Spam isn’t just for emails anymore. It has also entered social media. In fact, oversharing has become a problem on social media platforms.
Maintaining an active presence on social media is beneficial for your businesses. However, posting too often can be annoying. Nobody likes being spammed by a company, especially on social media. If you constantly fill everyone’s feeds with business-related content, your fans and followers may end up hitting the unfollow button.
If you notice that you’re losing fans or followers, it could be an sign that you might be sharing too much content that isn’t valuable. It’s fine to post a few times a day on social media, just as long as you’re posting useful, engaging content.
When it comes to social media marketing, quality over quantity is the name of the game. Focus on creating content that is valuable to your audience.
Too much self-promotion
Not too long ago, it was easy to drive sales by posting a few links on Twitter and Facebook. Back then, there was less noise and much less content. Today, however, every social media channel is overflowing with content. With so many businesses vying for the attention of the public, most people find ads annoying.
While there is no doubt that social media is a great place to promote your products and services, people are no longer receptive of ads as before. Social media noise has become deafening. As such, people have learned to ignore contents they don’t find interesting. There is no point in using social media if no one is reading your posts.
There are lots of different ways to use social media. Don’t just focus on promoting your business. Balance your self-promotion by providing value to your audience. Create content your audience actually wants to read. People have lots of questions they want answered. You might have the answers to some of these questions. Not only will it help increase engagement rate, they’ll also look to you as an industry leader.
Stop treating social media like a sales opportunity. Use it to engage with people, not to sell to them.
Absence of human touch
Engagement is a vital part of any social media marketing campaign. However, people won’t be interested to connect with you if you talk like a robot.
People want more than just branded messages. They want to know there are actual people behind the accounts. They want to converse, argue or share their opinion with people.
Turn off the formality and talk to your audience like humans. Inject some personality to your social media marketing. Tell a really good story or use humor in your content. Humanize your brand by putting a face to a name. Give your audience a peek into how your company run and the people behind it. Focus on being interesting, relatable, and human.
Sharing the same posts on every social media platform
It can be tempting to share the exact same post across different social media platforms. After all, it’s easier. It helps you save time while keeping your accounts active. It may seem harmless, but cross-posting isn’t a good idea.
Instagram allows users to link their profile to their other social media accounts. This allows you to automatically share your posts to other social media accounts. If you linked your Instagram account to your Twitter account, you’ll end up with a feed of cut off sentences and links. It will seem like you don’t know what you’re doing. Plus, you risk looking spammy, which may cause you to lose some followers.
Different platforms cater to different demographics. That said, it doesn’t make sense to share the exact same message across all platforms. To get the most out of your social media marketing campaign, you should take the time to tailor your message, not only to the platform you’re posting to, but to your audience as well.
Sending automated messages
As a business owner, you probably have a lot on your plate right now. There are lots of things that need to be done. As such, you may be looking for tools that will help you stay on top of things.
Automating your social media will make your life easier. While it’s okay to schedule posts automatically on their respective, you shouldn’t send automated direct messages.
Sending automated messages has become an increasingly popular marketing tactic. After all, it allows business owners and social media managers to respond to large groups of people in a timely manner. The problem is that the messages may come across as highly impersonal. Make sure that you put a personalized touch on all messages sent out via social media. The last thing you want is to sound like a robot when talking to your prospective and existing customers.
Ignoring or deleting negative feedback
What people say about your brand can directly affect your bottom line. When haters unleash their opinions, everyone can see it. Negative reviews and feedbacks can damage your reputation. Make sure that you know how to handle them the right way.
No one wants to hear negative comments about their business. You might be tempted to ignore or just delete the review or comment. Don’t. People will judge you based on your reaction, how quickly you respond, and how the whole thing ended.
If you ignore the comment, people will think that you don’t care about your customers. Deleting the comment will only make things worse. The complainant will leave another comment or review, and this time, he/she will be even more frustrated or angrier. Make sure that you reply in a professional and timely manner. Also, avoid engaging in a long public exchange. Take the conversation privately and address the issues as soon as possible.
Grammar or spelling errors
We are all humans, and we all make mistakes. But as a business professional, grammar and spelling errors are definitely a no-no.
No matter what your business size is, make sure that you create excellent, error-free content. You want to make sure you come across as the business professional you are.
Spelling and grammar lowers your credibility. In fact, studies suggest that simple grammatical or spelling mistakes can cut a company’s sales in half. Would you do business with someone who can’t even express himself correctly or doesn’t take the time to ensure their brand is advertised correctly? Probably not.
While I am not the grammar police by any means, I highly recommend that you take the time to edit your content before you publish it. Don’t let little errors cripple your credibility. Read your content out loud to check the tone, flow, and subject-verb agreement. If possible, have someone else review your work before it’s published.
Published May 28, 2020 by Deonnah Carolus