Social media plays a crucial role in many businesses’ marketing strategies. Not only can it increase a brand’s exposure to new potential clients, it offers a powerful platform for connecting with existing prospects and building valuable, lasting relationships.
Whilst there are countless examples of brands doing social media well, others are losing followers because of simple and easily avoidable mistakes which can do long term damage. In fact, research shows that 41.5% of consumers will unfollow a brand if it posts too often on social media, and 12% of users are put off by a high volume of promotional posts.
To ensure your business doesn’t fall into this common trap, read on for three social media marketing strategies to strongly avoid:
Too much promotional posting
It’s important for businesses to remember that, whilst social media is a great platform to drive sales revenue, it is not another advertising channel. Rather it’s a way to aid companies in engaging conversation and interacting with their customers. Failing to recognise this can have a negative impact on a brand’s online presence and public perception.
No one minds the occasional promotional post, but too much can become tedious and may risk tarnishing customer loyalty as people tend to disengage with companies that adopt an overtly ‘salesy’ approach.
To prevent this, make sure your social media channels offer a balance between promotional content and factual/non-product focussed content. This will make followers much more receptive and will ultimately bolster your brand’s profile.
Failing to interact
One of the biggest advantages of social media is that it allows companies to easily create dialogue with their consumers. However, many companies are still depicting a faceless brand by either failing to interact entirely or replying to their customer’s concerns with the one-size fits all, computerised message.
Evidence revealed that more than 55% of consumers were dissatisfied with agent-assisted communication on social media and would prefer to speak to a real person. Consequently, it is vital that you take advantage of the human element of social media channels by responding to individual customer queries with personalised messages. This way you can build authentic relationships with your stakeholders whilst increasing your professional reputation at the same time.
Focusing on quantity instead of quality
Posting content for the sake of it is a sure fire way of shooting your business in the foot when it comes to online engagement. Although it’s important to post regularly and build up a consistency on your social media channels, uploading poor content and posting too often can actually create adverse effects on your company’s digital presence.
Research shows the best way to attract customer attention is by posting high-quality content once a day, as businesses that posted more than once a day received 50% fewer clicks on their posts. One striking post is more likely to get you heard above the noise than several inadequate posts that will inevitably get overlooked. Bombarding followers with too many posts in quick succession can be overkill to a consumer and might cause them to unfollow your business completely.
Effectively managing your business’ social media is extremely important, even more so during the current pandemic which is leading more consumers to go online for their goods and services to limit the need to visit physical stores.
By avoiding these pitfalls and putting the effort in now to up your social media game, you can position your brand as a cut above the rest in the virtual space and reap long term rewards for your business.
If you would like more advice on social media management contact hello@makemorenoise.uk