Social Media Marketing - Common Mistakes
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�Social media refers to the means of
interactions among
people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas
in
virtual communities and networks.�
This is the description from
Wikipedia, I thought it might
be pertinent to start this blog post, that will detail how to avoid
common
mistakes when marketing through Social Media, with a definition. I
tried this
in the office before I wrote this and although everyone obviously knew
what it
was and what it did it was quickly evident it wasn�t easy to describe.
When you
apply this commercially, �how do we make money from Social Media,� it�s
the
�what� and �how� that become critical and harder to define.
This part of Social Media Marketing
will undoubtedly be
individual to each business and industry but there are common mistakes
that you
can avoid whilst you define your own individual approach, we�ll look at
some of
the issues over the next 2 posts.
Social
Media
Mistakes.
1.
It�s a
subtle Sales tool - look back at the definition at the start
of the post
and you�ll notice the word �sell� isn�t present, nor is �marketing� or
anything
that could be defined as �commercial�.
That�s not to say that you can�t generate leads or
enquiries and
ultimately revenue from it, you just have to adopt a more subtle
approach.
Instead of having
pictures of what you sell
with �buy me� signs, highlight the benefits, vision or the lifestyle
behind the
product or service.
Eg if you sold
contact lenses you would
look at the lifestyle choice it allows you as a way of marketing.
Camping and
festivals at this time of the year, swimming whilst on holiday � all
these are
selling points of the product but are presented in a subtle way. The
message is
all about what it allows you to do and through Social Media you can
encourage
posts and pictures from users who are all living that lifestyle /
vision which
is a powerful endorsement in today�s digital world.
2.
Cheating
� don�t do it! A program this week highlighted the fact that you can
buy
�likes�, �views� etc but it�s just not worth it. You want people that
are going
to share, talk about and want to know what it is you are saying �
that�s the
whole point of Social Media Marketing, it�s about creating content that
is
thoughtful and interesting enough that people are engaged by it.
You won�t get that
from a clicker in Dhaka,
furthermore if the content isn�t engaging enough to keep visitors it
may look
slightly suspicious that you have 45,000 followers! The old adage,
�Quality
over quantity,� has never been more relevant to this approach.
3.
Comments
� you�re going to get them, hopefully! The other aspect is that not all
of
them, in fact you can count on the fact that some of them will be
negative or
less than complimentary.
Ignoring these,
deleting them or pretending
they are not there is simply not an
option. Positive comments need to be addressed just as negative ones
obviously
do, make sure that you are doing this daily � lengthy gaps between
responses
will not encourage users to interact and you won�t get the valuable
feedback
that every business needs.
Act on them, take
them on board and more
importantly respond and let the complainant know what it is you have
done to
change / resolve the issue. They aren�t the only ones watching!
All companies make
mistakes. It�s how they
deal with them subsequently that is important, both to the business so
that
they don�t repeat the error but more importantly for the customer, it
shows
they�re valued and listened to � which is what every customer
wants���don�t
you?
About the Author
Easy Offices
(UK) was formed in 1999 and since then has grown to become one of the
UK's leading specialist advisers on serviced offices, office space and
virtual offices around the country. We offer
solutions to both businesses and individuals. You
can access our service online, by telephone on 0808 231 8103.
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Article Published/Sorted/Amended on Scopulus 2013-09-02 10:34:18 in Marketing Articles
