Save time and frustration when it comes to your social media program.
As more and more manufacturers are realizing that social media needs be a key tenet of any industrial marketing plan, the internet has exploded with B2B marketers getting their companies into the fray.
However, I often see companies that are so eager to gain a social media presence that they get themselves in over their heads, or don’t fully understand what they are doing.
That’s why I offer these 5 mistakes not to make when venturing into the waters of social media, compliments of Bill Nixon at jeffbullas.com.
1. Using the wrong metrics
When people are forced to deal with a subject that they don’t understand, they often try to gain some sense of control by applying the same rules to it that they’ve seen to work in their area of expertise.
Businesses that truly understand social media marketing use metrics that make sense for social media. They measure brand sentiment, the number of times their customers share their experience with the company’s customer service department and so on.
2. Setting up too many social network accounts
Many small businesses make the mistake of jumping headfirst into every social media platform, major and minor. They only think of how they are stretched too thin after they’ve set up pages everywhere and got a handful of fans. They are then forced to abandon many networks and lose face. The lesson to learn here is that no small business has the resources to run more than one or two social networking accounts.
3. Making your social presence all about you
Just as no one likes to be around a person who just likes to talk about himself, no one likes hanging around the Facebook page of a brand that can’t get enough of itself.
If you are going to get your business on a social network, you should concentrate on finding out what kind of content your customer base is interested in and invest in high quality content creation to meet the need.
4. No communication
Businesses run efficiently through division of labor. They create separate departments with specialized knowledge of HR, customer service, marketing and so on. Creating a separate, self-contained department for social networking, though, doesn’t work. Every business needs to involve multiple departments in its social media marketing effort.
The marketing, PR and customer service departments need to be in the loop.
5. You don’t have a plan
In many companies, the decision to jump on the social bandwagon is an emotional one, not one that’s the result of thinking and planning. This results in a social presence that is always run on improvisation and seat-of-the-pants creativity. For instance, if your business doesn’t have an editorial calendar for your social media presence, you may simply neglect to say something important and relevant when the Super Bowl comes around, when the back-to-school shopping season starts and so on.
Photo credit: Joaquin Villaverde Photography via photopin cc