Whether you use social media for yourself or for your company, you’ve probably figured out some tactics that work and other tactics that don’t. Using social media strategically is key to growing your business and interacting with your customers, as it lets you directly connect with your customers and receive feedback straight from the horse’s mouth. As fantastic as social media is as a free marketing tool, if you aren’t careful in the way you use it, you or your company could face some serious backlash. Plenty of top-notch brands have been hurt badly by poor social media tactics, leading to all kinds of boycotts, abandonments, PR nightmares, and other things that every company hopes to avoid. While the ceiling for social media is high, the basement is very low; make sure you don’t do more harm than good with your company’s social media account. Always compliment your social media with a constantly updated website, like a website from www.freewebsite.com. Check out these social media mistakes that you should avoid like the plague, so you don’t risk hurting your company’s image.
Make Sure the Right Person is in Charge
Make sure that whoever is running your social media accounts for your company is experienced and knows good social media tactics. Whoever you hire should have lots of experience with social media and a clean and verifiable record of increased engagement. In the last few years, countless individuals from many different companies (including large companies like StubHub and others) have been fired for accidentally tweeting messages with foul language that were meant for their personal account. Even if a mistake like this is caught after a few seconds, a few seconds is all it takes for someone to take a screenshot that leads to a serious PR crisis for your company. Make sure whoever is running your social media outlets knows what he or she is doing, and you’ll feel a little bit better.
Don’t Ignore Fans
One of the biggest benefits to social media is the ease of connecting with your fans. Depending on how many followers or fans your company has on social media, connecting with all of them can be a difficult task. Try and make sure that at least once per day (and preferably many times more) you’re interacting and responding to tweets, Facebook comments, and any other type of communication that you’re getting from your fans. The most successful businesses on social media are the ones that are constantly connecting with their fans, so don’t ignore your fans and you’ll be in good shape.
Avoid Bashing Your Competitors
While it may seem like a funny thing to do in order to get some press for your brand, you should never use social media to bash any of your competitors. It’s a lot easier to bash people or products behind the screen of a computer, but it appears very unprofessional and likely will lead to some of your fans being turned off. Not only is it unprofessional, but if you say the wrong thing about a competitor on social media it could land your company in some legal trouble. Avoid bashing other companies altogether, and instead maintain a very positive environment on your social media pages.
