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Are You Making These Common Social Media Mistakes?

Everyone knows that social media is the place to be to make connections with current and potential customers. Why, then, are so many companies getting it wrong? Maybe they are following bad advice or they just are not sure what to do. Maybe they do not even realize that they are even getting it wrong. If you recognize any of these mistakes, it might be time to go back to the drawing board. 

1. Doing Everything Yourself

While it is great that you have taken the initiative to keep your company's social media accounts up and running, chances are that your interactions would be much better if you worked as part of a team. For one thing, a professional writer should be helping you out with everything you post--even those itty bitty 140-character Twitter posts. At the very least, you should have a second set of eyes to scan your posts for typos, misspellings, and content that could be misunderstood. Second, coming up with fresh ideas and new things to say every day can be impossible, and you could end up on autopilot. If a few other people provide their input, your content is far more likely to be unique and engaging.

2. Failing to Focus

Even if you have a whole team assembled to work on maintaining your company's social media accounts, you still have to make sure you are focusing on the right ones. The only thing worse than having no social presence at all is to have a thin presence on too many outlets. One sign that you have too many plates in the air is posting the same content to all your channels. While this is not always a bad idea, if that is your only plan, you need to re-prioritize.

3. You Want to Talk About You

The 80/20 Rule applies to more than just sales and business, it applies to social media, too. If you spend more than 20% of your time on social media carrying on about you, your company, or your products and services, people are going to get bored and move along. Instead, look for topics that relate to your industry, and sift through industry news outlets and blogs to find interesting stories. Don't be afraid to add something seemingly irrelevant from time to time, too. The occasional cartoon or joke might help show your human side.

4. You Are Too Wordy

Using too many words and not enough images is deadly on social media. People might stop to read a wordy post from time to time, but the vast majority of people will simply scroll through all those pesky words until an image catches their attention. Then they will go back and see what the associated text is all about. Never post anything to social media without an image or you are wasting your time. The exception, of course, is Twitter. You still have to refrain from being wordy, but resist posting too many pictures as people like to scroll quickly through their updates without too many interruptions.

5. You Have No Follow-Up

Posting a bunch of stuff and hoping for the best might work for your personal Facebook account, but when you are managing a business social media account, you have to follow up with the numbers. Stay on top of the number of followers and fans you have, and check in on how many people are clicking the links you are sharing. If you do not know how well your previous posts have done, it is impossible to know what to keep doing and what to improve.

Social Media is Very Forgiving

One of the most frustrating aspects of social media is the short attention spans of its users. On the other hand, this can be a great asset if you have been falling down on the job. As long as you have not committed a terribly embarrassing blunder, most people will only notice and remember what you are doing right now and will forget about anything that went wrong in the past. It is never too late to start over. If any of these mistakes apply to you, start over today and start seeing results right away.

Topics: Social Media Mistakes

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