5 Social Media Marketing Mistakes
Written by: Eric Brantner on April 14, 2009 – 7:39 am
There’s no doubt that social media marketing is one of the hottest trends in online marketing at the moment. Companies of all sizes and from all industries are using networks like Twitter to connect with their audience and to promote their business. But the decision to get social often leads to mistakes resulting from inexperience, undermining the ultimate goals of the social media marketing campaign.
Here are the 5 most common social media marketing mistakes I see.
- Not Listening—Social media is about having a conversation. A conversation requires 2 or more people interacting with one another. In other words, you can’t just be broadcasting one way messages and expect social media success. You have to take the time to listen to what others have to say. Listening and responding to those in your community is what will build profitable relationships.
- Submitting Everything Yourself—This mistake just reeks of social media noob. Do not submit every blog post you write to Digg, Reddit, Mixx, etc. Submitting your own content is a terrible policy. It gives you virtually no chance of gaining any traction on these social media sites. You have to spend the time to build relationships so that others will submit your content and help you promote it. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time. And remember, not every post you write is worthy of link bait status.
- Helping Only Yourself—Of course, if you want others to submit your content and help you promote it, you have to do the same for them. Don’t be a social media jerk. You have to give if you want to receive. But don’t just help others because you want favors in return. Help promote content that you genuinely feel is good. This is how you’ll truly add value to the community.
- Being Too Corporate—If you’re thinking about socializing your company, you need to be prepared to loosen that necktie and expose a new side of yourself. Don’t fall into the trap of having the boring corporate blog and Twitter account that talks about internal company matters that no one cares about. Instead, offer your unique insights and showcase your personality. As cheesy as it sounds, be yourself. Don’t be a corporate robot.
- Trying to Control Everything—Sure, reputation management is an important part of any social media strategy, but be careful not to take this overboard. In other words, don’t reply to every negative comment on your blog or about your company. Once you start trying to dictate the conversation, you come off as overly defensive and too corporate. Remember, social media is about participation, and it’s based on the idea that everyone has a say. Don’t try to control the conversation.
Which mistakes would you add to this list? Tell me about them in the replies!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:26 am
The customer is always right, i.e. don’t ever be a jerk no matter what your customer says about you. And if your company does not provide the service your customer is looking for, point them in the right direction. This will increase thought leadership and will help close the deal the next time around
April 15th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Nice article.
I would like to add some more common mistakes made in Social Media Marketing.
1. Using weak, rather than powerful, benefit packed headlines
2. Focusing on your company, brand, taglines, product processes, etc., instead of customer problems
3. Not having a compelling offer
4. No call to action and little or no reason for prospect to act now
5. Trying to advertise everything about your company (related to 2)
6. Not tracking response
7. Following your competition instead of differentiating.
Hope the information is useful.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Great points. Several of them are easy to fall into without even realizing it. Thanks for the heads-up; good to double-check from time to time to make sure none of these sneak into my social media’ing!
April 15th, 2009 at 9:55 am
I agree with these mistakes. This may go along with “not listenting”, but I think another big one is being too “sales-pitchy.” In face to face relationships people do not normally walk up to you and begin pitching their product or company. In social media it is the same thing. The common courtesy you use when speaking to someone in person should be the same discretion used online. Relationships come first! There is time to give a pitch once these relationships are built, but there is a very fine line.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Great blog! Thanks – very useful..
April 15th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
[...] 5 social media marketing mistakes (Via: @stejules) [...]
April 15th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
You came up with 5 great ones. Another one that comes to mind is “Don’t just start a Twitter account to have one and then not use it.” Can end up hurting your brand more than never starting one at all.
Commit to it and just do it. Don’t be afraid to stumble at first.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Excellent post, Eric!
I’d like to echo what you’re saying in #3. In the era of user-generated content, you can never take more than what you yourself have given (in terms of useful, constructive content). Many try, but all fail.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Very good post here…especially the overall idea that we have to remember that we’re not only to help just OURSELVES. We should help others, that are trying to do the very same thing that we are.
And as a result of helping others…we’ll see that success that we hope for…as long as we give others the same opportunity.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
wonderful article. keep it up. Will be checking regularly for more like this.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Ok, here are my top No-Nos
1. Do not start a Twitter account and then block your updates…Why would anyone follow you if you can’t see what you’re tweeting about?
2. Don’t use the stock Twitter background templates. Get your own. Stock templates are soooo boring. Showcase a bit of your personality
3. Do not post 10 items in row. It’s irritating! and I’ll likely unfollow you.
4. Do not re-post the same thing 5 times a day. Get original!
April 16th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
not sure why the last one didn’t display, but here it is:
5. Don’t send out the “follow me and I’ll follow you” tweet. The point is to develop a relationship with people. How can you do that if you have a million followers…unless you’re Ashton Kutcher or CNN!
April 17th, 2009 at 7:28 am
As someone that’s just beginning to discover the value of social media, a couple things come to mind:
1) It’s one thing to ask for help but at least acknowledge those people that have taken the time to offer advice. There’s nothing more disheartening than to post a thoughtful reply to a question to have the person that asked it disappear into the www hinterland.
2) Yes, as Joanne Burgess recommends, don’t post on Twitter 10 times in a row. More importantly don’t flood Twitter with your posts. The great benefit to Twitter is the plethora of information being provided. It’s meant to be an update on what you’re doing, not minute-to-minute brainwave reporting that overtakes your follower’s screens.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:52 am
@Joanne–I’m with you on the binge Tweeting. Whenever I see my front page clogged up with Tweet after Tweet from the same person, you can rest assured they’ll be dropped
January 12th, 2010 at 8:23 am
This article was excellent as are all the comments. Very helpful for me. I have always used social media but now do so with a new startup in mind which is a slightly different proposition.