Using social media to drive traffic to your website should be near the top of your priority list, along with creating and regularly contributing to your blog. But social media is more than just throwing up a page or setting up an account and hoping for the best.
In fact, doing social media poorly could be worse than not being on social media at all. If you can’t find any ways to get instagram followers for free, you either need to up your game in terms of social media, or just get out of it altogether.
Social media fails
Here are some of the things to avoid when using social media — and how to correct them:
- Buy, buy, buy: Social media is about being social. It’s why even if people buy Tiktok followers, they have to engage with the audience that should come in after this. Seems odd to have to say that, given the name, but lots of people don’t get it. Only about 20% of your social media posts should be about the services or products you sell.
- Me, me, me: You want to promote your business or organization. I get that. But if that’s all you talk about — even if you’re not doing a hard sell — you’ll bore your audience to tears. When that happens, they move on to someone else.
- Inconsistent: If you’re going to use social media, think carefully about the time and effort it requires before you set up a dozen accounts. Once you’re in, you need to be in — wholeheartedly. That means contributing not just every day, but many times a day. Some social media experts say four to six times a day is just about right.
- Copycat: These are people whose only contribution is to share what other people have produced. This, of course, is great for the original author but not so great for you; you come across as not having anything worthwhile to say.
- Unprofessional: Whether you have a business presence or a nonprofit, you want to put on your best face. This means having a portrait taken by a professional photographer. If you have to use a logo, because you’re a multi-zillion-dollar company and that’s how people recognize your business, that’s fine. But for the rest of us, remember that people do business with people, not logos. Businesses could use an account manager to take charge of their social media activity, they know the do’s and don’ts of the social media world. Upleap can help you grow instagram followers, likes and engagement.
- Careless: I know there are people who say proper spelling, grammar and punctuation aren’t important these days. I am not one of them. When I was a newspaper editor, I always made my reporters ask for the proper spelling of names — even if the guy’s name was John Smith. I wanted to be positive it wasn’t Jon Smythe, because if you can’t get the person’s name right, people will wonder about the accuracy of everything else. Same with social media. If you don’t care enough about your social media posts (or your website) to use language properly, where else are you being sloppy?
- One note: This is related to “buy, buy, buy” and “me, me, me.” Mix up your posts and updates by topic and by the time of the day. In this fashion, you can get different kinds of messages out to people who habitually check their social media at the same time every day.
- Disengaged: Social media is a conversation. What that means is first you talk, then the other person talks. And then you respond to that — with everyone who takes the time to visit your social media pages or profiles. This is the biggest gift people can give you, so show your gratitude by engaging with them. Be sure to respond to all posts, including the negative.
- One size fits all: The temptation is oh-so-great, particularly with social media schedulers at our fingertips, to put out the same message across all platforms. This is a mistake. That delicious dinner photo that you display your Pinterest page is going to look pretty weird on LinkedIn, which focuses on business and the professions.
What are your greatest social media challenges? I’d love to hear!