Social media marketing is like having a friendly conversation with your best friend over the telephone. It is also like walking into an old high school friend at the shopping mall and just catching up. Social media is all laid back and conversational. Many new businesses entering the social media sphere hoping to get the word out about their business goes about it doing it the wrong way.
Social media (Web 2.0) is an excellent method to build up brand authority, credibility and trust. With a proper social media strategy, you can become the expert in your market niche and become known as the person to go to when there are any questions asked about any of the services or products that you provide. It is also a great way to get the word out about your business if you are doing it the right way.
Here’s a couple of mistakes that you should take notice of with any social media marketing campaign.
Social media marketing mistakes
Only promoting yourself: By only promoting yourself as the “who ha” and not providing any value to your community is a huge mistake. As you enter the social media world it is all about entering into conversations and participation. We all see businesses using various Web 2.0 channels such as Twitter and Facebook that spends all their energy marketing themselves. This is a sure way to get people to turn the opposite direction that you are facing.
Listening: This is a topic that I have blogged about in many blog posts previously. Listening should always be the first step in any social media marketing campaign. Social media is supposed to be conversational. That means that two or more people are listening to each other and then interacting. If you are only focusing on broadcasting, then you are really not engaging at a social level at all. Building relationships with social media requires you to listen to understand the other person’s point of view.
Not conversational: Never try to force your point of view with your network and community. As stated before, you should always start by listening, build trust, and understand the other person’s point of view. Of course your want to voice your own point of view, but always avoid being offending and criticizing. Let your personality show by interacting with your community.
Don’t over participate: If you are trying to participate in too many social media channels your participation might become inconsistent and spotty. Experiment with a wide range of channels but only focus on the ones where your targeted audiences are spending their time online. These are the people you want to interact with.
Giving up: SMM is about creating lasting relationships. It is really not an instant solution that you can do quickly. Be prepared for a long-term commitment or don’t even start your social media marketing campaign.
