10 Social Media Mistakes

When it comes to social media, marketers can’t help making mistakes. [Check out When Social Media Goes Bad.] In their rush to embrace this hot marketing format or promote their latest campaign, marketers forget everything they’ve learned about social media and ignore its rules assuming this onetime won’t matter. But it does, especially to the social media participants they’re trying to reach.

Here are ten social media mistakes marketers can’t help making because social media differs from the way they’ve always done marketing.

1. Assume social media participants are waiting for their pearls of wisdom. Understand consumers are on social media platforms to interact with family and friends, not merchants. Wanting to be part of the conversation isn’t enough to qualify. You must engage and interact with people to become part of the community. Many social media followers only want your discount.
2. Use language stripped of anything remotely sounding like a person. While social media requires a human voice, many marketers and marcom professionals are so accustomed to using corporate-speak that it spills into their social media communications.
3. Yell me, me, me.  Just focusing your social media communications on your firm, products and brands is the surest way to turn prospects off. The one exception is discounts. Take a lesson from your mother, who while she’s interested in what you’re doing, really only wants you to listen to what she has to say.

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