Even though social media has been a part of our lives for at least a decade, it’s still obvious to perform and avoid missteps, especially for brands that want to engage in a conversation with a community
1. Too many promotional messages
This is probably the most common mistake we see on social media: brands only talk about themselves, their products and services and their promotions, sales or discounts. Let’s hear, it’s ok to talk about you, especially when you’re offering something exclusive, an aggressive promotion or an exciting contest. But if you only do that, people end up tanner.
I was talking to you some time ago about the 4-1-1 rules in the three golden rules to perform on Twitter. The same principle applies to Facebook, Linkedin and most social media, in fact. What is it about?
Every time you publish:
- Four publications will be content sharing, links to articles, photos or videos deemed interesting;
- A publication will be an answer to a question or comment from a user;
- A publication will be self-promotional, that is, about you, your company or an article on your website or blog, for example.
So one in six publications would be self-promotional. In fact, the brands do the opposite and publish five times out of six, or even more, promotional messages. And people are dropping.
2. Publish irrelevant content
According to a majority of polls, what is the number 1 reason why people stop following a brand on social media? Because they published too often. However, if a company publishes excellent content, three times a day, rare will be the people who will complain. The underlying reason is rather that the contents are considered irrelevant! When people respond to polls saying “the content did not interest me anymore” or “I saw all too often the same content”, it’s the equivalent of saying that the content is irrelevant.
Why do people stop following a brand on Facebook. Source: Exact Target
Relevance is one of the 5 golden rules for an effective content strategy.
3. Publish too often
One of the questions I still get most often: what is the ideal publication frequency? There was a time when it was said that publishing more than once a day was risky on Facebook, while this school of thought has evolved and it is to say that publish several times a day would be OK, so much so long as publications are spaced out in time, so as not to cannibalize organic performance with the community. Who says true?
According to Agorapulse, the ideal publication frequency on Facebook, for example, will depend on four factors:
- Demographic profile and preferences of your audience
- Your type of business and the industry in which you operate
- The type of publications: links, texts, contests, photos, videos, carousels, etc.
- The size of your community
4. Use jargon
Some brands will seek to more specifically reach certain demographic profiles, for example the Millenials (18-34 years). However, you must be careful not to distort your usual tone by inserting emojis or acronyms that will be understood by only a fraction of your community. Worse, it shows and it feels like when a company is “trying too hard” to please a market segment.
In a survey conducted by SproutSocial earlier in 2017, 30% of respondents said they would stop following a brand on social media when this kind of behavior is observed!
5. Publish sporadically
If publishing too often is a scourge, it is not uncommon to see some brands suffer from the opposite syndrome, and so publish that too rarely, even very sporadically. We can understand that it is difficult to maintain the pace and publish dynamic and catchy content every day. But what is the impact on your image when a user falls on your Twitter account and notices that your last tweet was in April 2014? Or that your last post on Facebook is several months old?
No matter the size of your business, it will be important to have an editorial calendar that will ensure that you identify the key moments of the year to communicate certain aspects or promotional messages. You will then decide whether your internal resources are sufficient to meet the social media writing and management needs of the community, or if you need to outsource with a freelancer or external agency.
6. Do not respond to comments and messages
Last but not least, do not take the time to respond to reviews, questions, comments, or messages left on your various social media accounts. If a user takes the time to leave a comment on Google Review, TripAdvisor, Yelp or directly on your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin page, thousands of other users will see it as well.
But does it take time, all that? Yes. I told you just recently that the web and social media have become a necessary evil for businesses. It’s up to you to rise to the challenge and turn it into a business opportunity! Hire social media agency in mumbai Now!
