The Don’ts of Social Media Marketing

For the modern-day business, social media marketing has become a staple. Facebook pages are popping up left and right, promoting all kinds of products and services. Some people will even hire a virtual assistant just to manage their Facebook or Instagram accounts.

But spreading a brand on social media requires a lot of TLC. One wrong move, a mistake gone unnoticed, and it could spell disaster for your business’s reputation.

Here are five big no-nos of marketing on social media:  

1. Posting Exclusively Promotional Content

   Yes, you made that Facebook page to help your shop gain more traction, but it’s not just a place to make posts of your products. Focusing only on the product will bore people. Social media is also a great venue to provide updates or information about you or what you do.
   
   Take this scenario for example: You run a restaurant. Constantly posting nothing but pictures of your food will eventually leave a bad taste (pun unintended) on your followers’ mouths. Try sharing posts by your customers (with their consent of course) or make posts about your staff. You can even document the way you make your food. Get creative.
   
   If you’re going to close for renovation, holidays, or moving to another location, you can make a post on social media. Let the online version of word-of-mouth do the rest of the work for you.

2. Abusing Hashtags

   Hashtags are a great tool if you want to bring more attention to the content you’ve posted. However, you have to be careful with how many you use on a single post. Hashtags have different levels of effectiveness depending on the channel. Instagram, for instance, is well-known for being heavily reliant on hashtags to perform well. Facebook? Not so much.
   
   According to an Entrepreneur article, IG posts with 11 or more hashtags perform the best, while Twitter is better off with one or two. Facebook, on the other hand, works well without any hashtags at all.

3.  Making Grammatical Errors

   You don’t have to be a Grammar Nazi to say that a post with grammatical errors just looks bad. You don’t want your page to look bad, don’t you? It makes you appear careless and, well, not professional at all. Do take some time to proofread before posting.

4. Ignoring your Followers

   Getting likes, comments, and shares from your followers is a pleasant feeling, no? It gets even better if you see your follower count increasing. But if you want even more, you have to return the favor. Interact with people. Like and reply to their comments. Share their posts about your business. Answer their messages.
   
   Don’t ignore what they are doing, even if it’s not always good. In a way, it’s customer service. We all know how bad customer service can ruin a business, right?

5. Posting Your Personal Opinions or Irrelevant Content

   One mistake that many business pages do is post content that isn’t actually related to their brand, in hopes that it increases their exposure.  It’s best to stay away from politics, religion, and the like. Stick to business. Stick to what you know.
   
   And whatever you do, don’t voice out your personal opinions on your business page. That’s what your own Facebook profile is for. Remember, your followers don’t always hold the same beliefs that you do.

 And there you have it. Having a social media strategy for your business is great, but it’s entirely another thing to execute it.  Always be aware of what you’re doing online, and don’t forget:  don’t ever make a Facebook faux pas!