Top five social media mistakes that businesses make.

Don't make these social media blunders

BY SPECIAL TO THE U-T

 

Social Media is hot these days. No matter what the size of your business, you should be usingFacebook, Twitter, blogging, YouTube and LinkedIn daily to get your content online, so you can be easily found and “shared.” Social Media should be considered another marketing tool, and it involves planning, strategic thinking and tracking metrics just as any another element in your marketing mix.

The mistake comes when a business jumps too quickly to get its social sites up. Starting a social media marketing campaign without prior thought and planning cannot yield the results you are looking for. If you don’t start with a goal, how will you know when it has been met?

Here are the top five social media mistakes that businesses make:

No social media marketing plan

Once you determine your goal for your social sites, it’s much easier to determine who in the company should manage it: marketing or customer service or both. Don’t be afraid to have multiple people at your company responsible for different aspects of your social media voice. There are many reasons a business wants to have a social media presence:

• Build a loyal community

• Allow its customers a way to provide instant feedback

• Be a valuable resource for information in your niche

• Offer limited time coupons

• Provide faster customer service

Lack of posting frequency to social sites

Once you create the sites, how often should you post to them? It depends on how quickly you want to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and grow your network. Here are some best practices:

• Blog: Once a week minimum. Once per day is best.

• Twitter: Once a day minimum. Three to six times per day is best, spread out throughout the day.

• Facebook: Once a day minimum. Three times per day is best, morning, afternoon and evening.

• LinkedIn: Personal profiles should have status updates daily. Groups should post a weekly discussion topic.

• YouTube: Post three times per week if it’s a short update (three minutes or less). Once a week if longer Q&A or “Product Review” type format.

Not using keywords

Social media is so much bigger than building a community of loyal “followers.” The smart business knows that keywords are the way to be found online. To improve your SEO, you must use your keywords often. Many businesses don’t realize that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn can all be used as search tools, and if you conduct a keyword search while you are logged in to one of your social sites, you’ll get results within that site, based on your query. All business social sites are public and 100 percent indexed by Google, so tweets and posts can come up in natural search results.

Lack of engagement

Your social sites won’t yield the results you are looking for unless people are participating. Participation includes:

• “Liking,” sharing or adding comments to your Facebook posts

• “Retweeting” your Twitter tweets

• Subscribing and commenting on your blog or YouTube videos

Your posts should tell people what you want them to do. Always reply back when they have taken the time to comment. Be personal and add value.

No call to action

When people find your content online be sure to tell them what to do next, e.g., call you, fill out your online form, subscribe to an e-newsletter or download a free report. How will you entice and capture them to get them into your sales funnel? Make sure your offer “adds value” and tells your visitor “what’s in it for them” so they will be more likely to respond. Provide valuable content, build relationships and don’t always sell.