Executives know by now that they can’t get past social networks. They understood that social media has a say in their business future, especially when their competitors are already active on Facebook and Twitter, convinced and full of motivation to make up the time. Impatient, however, if they are not crowned with success immediately, their motivation and interest in their blog and network profile vanishes fast.
Why is it that so many companies fail with their social media activities? Well, a look at the following top10 mistakes companies make in social media marketing might give you an answer:
1. Missing strategy: Many companies are going with the flow without taking a second to think about their own strategy. Does a toolmaker really need a Facebook page or aren’t his customers better found somewhere else? Well, such considerations should be at the beginning of a social media strategy.
2. Think in campaigns: Businesses that start a Facebook page because they want to celebrate a jubilee in three months and advertise their special offers will most probably fail. Social networking is all about dialogue, and you can’t come by for just a month and then disappear again for the next few years.
Businesses must earn the benevolence of their target group first, before they can demand activities from their fans, such as clicking on links, passing on offers, etc. Building a network does not happen overnight. The traditional “campaign thinking” works at most for the planning of Facebook ads.
3. Just pretending to be social: Unfortunately, social media profiles are still mixed up with ad space. Too many companies think it’s enough to advertise on Facebook or Twitter. Instead of listening to find out what people want and are interested in, they just talk about themselves and their great offer. Many marketers are unaware that their communication behavior needs to change if they want to be successful in social networks.
4. Misunderstanding content marketing: Companies have heard that they can score with good content, which is content that has the so-called added value. However, too many of them are still afraid to reveal too much of their knowledge – they want to get paid for. This often leads to completely trivial company content being shared, like funny pictures and humorous cloze, but provides no added value for brand awareness.
5. Not taking social media serious enough: The handling of social media is often given as an additional job to assistants, secretaries or juniors. Creating content, maintaining a blog, and building an active fan base on social networks, however, is a lot of work that’s hard to do alongside the actual daily work. The people in the company, who are actively sharing the content in the networks, are the mouthpiece of the company and should bring with them relevant knowledge. The social media presence of a company is at least as important as the reception lobby or corporate website. Therefore, commissioning constantly changing interns with this important communication task is utterly reckless.
6. Scheduling too little time: When asked, “Why did you stop blogging?”, 90% of the time the answer is, “Because I did not have time for it.” Often, the time spent on blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. is underestimated. That’s why in stressful moments, social media activities are often the first to be dropped – with devastating consequences. Social networks and blogs live from regularity, which means after a long absence you have to start completely anew.
7. Distrusting social media: Anyone who refuses to deal with networks as a private person can hardly present his company credibly there. Even if the boss does not become active himself, he must at least endorse the openness and transparency that social media communication demands. The responsible employees simply need the full in-house support to persevere the social media marathon.
8. Marketing homework not done: All effort is in vain if the target group is unknown and problems can’t be identified. At the latest when creating the social media strategy, marketers must be concrete: Who do I want to reach? What problems can I help the person with? What should the person do?
9. Having no money for social media marketing: Those who are not prepared to spend money on their social media activities will not get very far. Even though participating in the networks is generally for free, there’s a lot investment needed for extra staffing, consultancy fees, graphics and image licenses, content hiring and ads.
10. Wrong expectations: Some marketers expect to win new customer right after presenting themselves on a platform, which leads to giving up quickly when there isn’t immediate success. A realistic window of time to assess your own social media efforts is three to six months. Knowing in advance what you can achieve with social media protects against disappointment. For fast sales goals, neither a blog nor Facebook work well, but for long-term brand awareness, customer loyalty and customer acquisition via recommendations, both are perfect.
By MediaBUZZ
