What NOT to do on Social Media

Social media has become an amazing digital marketing tool for brands. It’s a fantastic way to instantly get your message across to your customers and promote your products and services.

But if not used correctly, your profiles might end up unnoticed or dismissed, or your social media updates misconstrued.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes you can make on social media.

Poor presentation

This should almost go without saying, but a social media profile that doesn’t have great imagery, a branded profile photo, descriptions and a link to your website likely isn’t going to perform well. Before you go crazy with the status updates or Instagram photos, take the time to fill out your profile – because first impressions do count.

Misuse of hashtags

Overuse of hashtags, using hashtags on the wrong social media platform, jumping on a trending hashtag irrelevant to your audience, using hashtags where there shouldn’t be a hashtag #justbecause… These are all easily avoidable mistakes. Think about the keywords relevant to your business and whether or not these are appropriate for hashtagging. And tread lightly.

Promoting competitor content too often

It’s great to promote industry news relevant to your niche on your social media – but not to your detriment. Avoid posting content that you could have written yourself. And never share competitor websites offering the same services as you unless it is absolutely relevant. Think about it: L’Oréal promoting Revlon wouldn’t make any sense. So think about if what you’re sharing is any different.

Not conducting audience research

Before you commit the third sin of digital strategy – creating too many social media profiles for your brand – you need to conduct audience research into where your target audience is on social media, and what they are doing on there. There’s no point spending time on creating a Twitter profile if your target audience is predominantly focused on Instagram and Facebook.

Not checking on automated content

One of the great things about social media is that you can schedule in content in advance, so you don’t have to worry about posting updates for your brand after you’ve been at work all day, or on a Saturday when you’re out at brunch. But the important thing is to check your automated content closer to its publishing date, as well as routinely checking your feed after posts have been published, so that you don’t accidentally post something inappropriate in light of a recent news story or event. Keep social media processes in place to prevent this from happening to your brand.

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