Over the last five years, many business organizations have embraced social media as a marketing channel. In that period, companies have learned the ropes so to speak, understanding what kinds of content generate the most engagement, and knowing whom to follow and when the best time is to publish materials.
Many have been since able to establish routines and rules for social media community management. But these are not always good ones. Below, we tackle some of the bad habits that have prevented not a few brands from truly solidifying their presence on this platform.
Being on a hard-sell mode all the time. True, the social media accounts should be taken advantage of as a venue for talking about one’s products or service offerings. But there should be a good balance of the types of content businesses put out on their pages, lest they turn off their followers. Some materials should simply be entertaining or educational, and not necessarily promotional. Managers should also tackle relevant topics about the state of the world, or the environment, or developments in the industry.
Talking only about their own brand. Relatedly, some brands think their business and products are the only topics worth discussing on their pages. But there is immense value in promoting other brands as well, especially those whose products are also typically purchased by their target market. It can lead to coordinated marketing campaigns, which can only mean amplified brand messaging.
Becoming overly reliant on automation. These days, social media community managers can take advantage of tools for automating post publishing. This is theoretically a good way to make the process time and cost-efficient. However many social media users are also smart and perceptive, and will eventually find out if the account is being managed by an automaton: No spontaneous posts that are based on the day’s hot topic, only a series of materials that seem to have been planned well ahead.
Sounding like a robot. It’s generally good to take an official tone when responding to user actions. But social media presents the chance to sound like a person, not a machine. Messages that look copy-pasted such as “Thank you for your feedback. Hope you visit again.” must be replaced with more lively and thoughtful ones like, “Wow, you just made our day with your comment – free drinks on us on your next visit!“ and emojis can be inserted somewhere. To aid in efforts to sound like an actual, approachable representative of the organization and not a staid institution, official social media accounts may be created for top executives who can then respond to particular categories of consumer feedback.
Are you guilty of following any of the bad social media marketing habits listed above? Here at GreyBox Creative, we are ready to help you break them, and create new, good ones. We have a team of digital marketing experts with many years of experience growing social media communities for our clients, and we will be more than happy to help you build yours as well.