Common mistakes by small business owners.
Social media has become an integral part of every business in every niche. The problem, however, is most small business owners are unfamiliar with the basic rules to promote a business online. In addition, they often fall short on time, and the first thing that gets overlooked is their social media accounts.
Avoid Spamming
Over the years, this is the biggest and most flagrant problem for business owners and even social media agencies. Nobody wants product rammed down their throat all day, every day. You need to find the right mix of informational posts, entertaining posts, and, of course, business posts.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms
Every business has certain social media platforms that work well for them. However, a platform that works for a news website may not work for a retail website and vice versa. For instance, Pinterest is a top platform for retail, but it will do very little for a news website in terms of actual conversions.
In general, Facebook will work for any type of business, but the new algorithm changes by Facebook mean you need to pay attention to how you construct your posts. If your income depends on ads, are you using Facebook Instant Articles to maximize your exposure?
Twitter is another platform most businesses can use, but it ranks among the bottom sites for actual conversions. However, Twitter, along with Instagram, are excellent platforms for letting consumers know the personality of a business. Twitter is also a great platform to use for customer service.
Engage Your Audience
If you are not responding to comments or engaging your audience, you are making a huge mistake. If you neglect to interact with your audience, they will start to think you have a bot posting and just turn you off. The reaction from not only the person making the original comment but also the rest of the readers will be amazing when you respond regularly.
That being said, you also need to be careful which comments you engage with. The last thing you need is to get into a battle online with an upset customer. While you obviously do not want to ignore negative comments, you do not want to fan the flames either.
All of this takes time, something a lot of business owners don’t have. If you want to improve your online presence and find yourself challenged in devoting the time necessary to do it properly, just give STBW a call!
Photo Courtesy of Jason Howie via Creative Commons License
