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When it comes to social media marketing, there are just as many ‘do nots’ as there are ‘dos’. The most effective social media marketing presences are not always those that spend the most time on their social media campaigns, but those that spend the smartest time on their marketing efforts.
There are not that many rules to follow when it comes to social media. Yes, there are guidelines, and there are certainly best practices, but when it comes to pure rules, the world of social media is remarkably self-regulating.
However, this does leave potential problems for businesses and individuals. With the wrong strategy, you could end up alienating a potentially great community.
Sometimes an anti-example is all you need to set a marketing plan into motion. Five anti-tips that are perfect for creating a model of what not to do for your social media marketing.
1. Treat your social media fans like complete idiots
It is such a rudimentary error, but it still affects hundreds of online marketing campaigns. The average consumer takes in hundreds of advertisements on a daily basis, and is distinctly in tune with advertising trends and styles. Marketing to an audience as if they were blissfully unaware of your intentions is ineffective and disrespectful.
Be welcoming, be friendly, and be transparent. The online world thrives on openness, and an open campaign is one that does not judge its audience.
2. Market to your online community directly
The internet can be a great platform for direct response marketing, but more often than not, social media platforms are not the place to do it. When used as a marketing research platform, social media channels thrive. When used as a marketing platform on their own, it is easy to lose a potentially lucrative audience through direct marketing on social media.
3. Monetize your social media efforts right away
There is a belief, particularly amongst businesses that have only recently transitioned to the internet, that services need to be monetized instantly to have any real value. When applied to some marketing campaigns and services, this might sometimes work, but for social media it’s often a mistake.
When you start investing in social media marketing, build up an audience that you can monetize in the future. Of course this does not mean that you don’t have a strategy, KPI’s, metrics and ROI forecasts. Thousands of people will join you when they are not being asked for money, and a great portion will stay once you have built a connection and gradually monetized your efforts.
4. Be on all social media and networks at once
Spreading yourself across multiple social media platforms only segments and splits your fanbase. While you may have a really large fanbase, it is so fragmented and difficult to communicate with that it is essentially valueless.
Focus on one or two different social media platforms and ruthlessly eliminate those that are not effective to your business.
5. Force yourself to do social media marketing and engage your community
Social media marketing should not be stressful. It could be difficult at times; it could be tiring at times; it even could be exhausting at times, but it should never be a stressful activity.
When you are building an audience, make it fun for yourself, not just them. Keeping things interesting makes long-term marketing easier for you and your audience.
Nice post and there are some nuggets there. But I don’t agree with point number 5. It should be as fun as possible, but something being hard work or stressful doesn’t isolate yourself. Forcing yourself to engage might even be a winning tactic! Because it is new for so many businesses, there might be of the force-sauce needed.