5 Most Common Social Media

FAILS

For just about every kind of business imaginable, social media marketing can be a genuine tonic – bringing in connections, expanding the reach of

your brand, and interacting with potential customers.

There is much you can gain from building a presence in the social media;

but only if you do it right. Not surprisingly, too many newcomers into

the social arena don’t get it right. Whether by lack of experience and

insight, from ill-advised influences, or simply by a lack of focus… there are

negative patterns of social media interaction that you should avoid.

In order to ensure that you get maximum results from the time, money and resources you put into your social

media campaigns, you should be familiar with the most widely common

failures. They all boil down to a few specific patterns; and here are the 5

most common social media fails:

Have you ever noticed how some people/brands/companies (especially

the smaller ones) are all over the place with repetitive status updates, which are obviously getting spurted out by a bot – or worse, someone without the least bit of common sense? Don’t be

like that.

5 Most Common Social Media Fails | Too Much, Too Soon

There is no point in creating dozens of accounts across different websites. It’s

best to focus on a few websites and put a bit of soul into them. There is no good reason why you should make dozens of status updates over the first few days.

Pace yourself, look around, think before you type.

How about those who keep updating their twitter/facebook/google+ with

repetitive, inane, desperate offerings? You know the type: “Check out this

coupon! Buy now with discount!” Don’t those creatures realize how the era of the spiteful door-to-door encyclopedia

salesmen are long over?

5 Most Common Social Media Fails | Special offer! Buy Now!

Sadly, they don’t. You need to get into the mindset of your target audience, and realize that when something is

offered insistently, it just doesn’t sound right. While it’s a good idea to come up with promotions and special deals, they

should be used to pepper a bulk of informative and helpful altruistic

interactions.

For someone who’s active in a social media channel for a while, there are few things as annoying as someone who only contacts them to ask for something… even if it’s something apparently trivial such as sharing a piece of news or voting up a story.

5 Most Common Social Media Fails | Please Share This!!!

You need to think of the “please share/vote this” as a very special trump card that you can only pull once in a full

moon, and that’s provided you are ready to reciprocate when the request arises. In fact, for best results with this

kind of strategy, it works better to reciprocate somehow before even

asking for a favor.

Why do some people have so much bang for buck from their social media efforts, while others barely scrape any results after sweating their brows off

trying to play all the right cards? Why to those poor souls on the lower end have

such a hard time getting their campaigns to deliver?

5 Most Common Social Media Fails | Apples And Oranges

A common reason is called “severe strategic misalignment”; to put it

simply, it’s like apples and oranges. If you’re trying to sell apples to a group of people who want to get oranges, how successful do you suppose you’ll be?

It’s great having lots of followers, and it’s sure to impress almost everyone

who doesn’t know better. But for those in the know, tens of thousands of followers a guru does not make.

Because real gurus don’t just amass followers: they engage them.

5 Most Common Social Media Fails | A Hollow Following

And it makes a world of difference. You could have nine thousand random followers who don’t even know or care about who you are. Or you could have nine hundred laser-focused followers

who are very interested in your field of expertise, and who may even help

spread your message. It’s entirely up to you!