5 Brand Building Mistakes to Avoid on Social Media

Did you know that as of January 2014, a whopping 74 percent of adults online use social networking sites?

Thanks to the ability to reach a potential audience this large via social media, it is highly likely that a well-crafted social media campaign and strategy will help your brand grow. Alternatively, one mishap on social media has the ability to hurt your brand image and reputation.

Get the most out of social media by avoiding these five brand building mistakes.

Mistake No. 1: Using every social platform

While there is a wide array of social media platforms available for use today, it may not be valuable to your company to be active on all of them. Each network serves a purpose and appeals to a specific audience. Prior to signing up for social media accounts, determine what your social media goals are. It is important to align your goals with the platform that can convey it best.

It is also essential for you to conduct market research on where your audience lives online. Being on too many channels may hinder your ability to reach your target audience and result in ineffective content. Social media requires you to be active and engaging with your customers, as frequently as they are with you.

Mistake No. 2: Not staying relevant with content

Given that social media platforms were built with different goals in mind, they each offer a unique experience to their targeted audience. For this reason, it is important for companies to deliver content that expresses the right tone for each channel.

Here are the characteristics of the top four most-used social channels and how to cater your content to the users of each social platform.

Twitter

Twitter is a powerhouse for creating buzz around a brand and building it fast! Companies are able to speak to customers in a more informal and fun way. Use this channel to share events and conversation in real time.

Facebook

Facebook is by far the most personal of the “Big Four” social sites. This network is best used by providing content that’s complete with visuals: clear and eye-catching photos. Use this channel to put a “face” to the name of your business, communicating with the use of long-form content and comments from your fans.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most formal social platform. It was built for business professionals to share updates on their companies and the related industry. Use this platform to provide potential employees and clients with updates on the current state of your business.

LinkedIn also offers users discussion groups and has a built-in blogging platform. Companies and employees can use these avenues to display their expertise and express their opinions about current industry events. This helps build your credibility as well as your brand.

Google+

Google+ is the key to maximizing your brand’s visibility on Google’s search pages. It has the ability to draw customers in by providing essential business information such as your location, phone number and reviews. Google+ allows you to craft content for specific target audiences by placing them in different circles, which is a way to group people by certain characteristics.

For example, a business may want to create circles for VIPs, prospects and current clients. You can then craft and deliver circle-specific content. Use this platform to increase your company’s SEO and to laser focus your content for specific audiences.

Mistake No. 3: Sharing too much information in a short period of time

Posting and interacting in a consistent manner is definitely important, but it is possible for pages to publish posts too often.

Followers will get tired of you constantly flooding their dashboards and could potentially unlike or unfollow your page!

Twitter

Tweet at least three times a day, but never more than once per hour. Since Twitter was made for real-time, short-form content, you can post on Twitter more often than you would on the other platforms.

Facebook

Post to Facebook two times — max. Socialbakers found that posting once a week wasn’t enough for brands to capture their audience, but that posting more than twice a day would cause brands to lose engagement.

LinkedIn

Post here once a day, but not on weekends. Given that your company shouldn’t make business moves too frequently, there is no reason to post more than once a day.

Google+

Post on Google+ three times a day at most, but not on the weekends. With Google+, the more you post, the more engagement you will see!

Mistake No. 4: Ignoring the “social” aspect of social media

One of the biggest mistakes you can make on social media is actually forgetting what the platforms were created for. Social networks provide companies with a voice and a personality. It allows customers to see that companies are not robots, that they are doing business with real people.

Outside of posting content and updating statuses, companies should respond and reply to what their customers are saying. While you don’t have to interact with every single post or tweet, responding to them builds more trust and camaraderie among your followers.

Use social media as a way to display the fun and different quirks and traditions that only your company may have!

Mistake No. 5: Not utilizing your analytics

Almost all social media platforms now provide their users with analytics regarding who has been engaging and receiving their content the best. Facebook provides insights about gender, age, location, post clicks, website clicks and more. Recording these numbers allows you to see where you may have gained unexpected customers, as well as whether the content you are currently posting is engaging.

After collecting more details on your engaged audience, you can target your advertisements more specifically toward the age group, gender, location and other demographics that performed well. You can also conduct more market research about how to reach these specific groups, creating ads that will be more cost effective.

Avoid the five mistakes above, and you will be well on your way to creating an engaging space where you can be social with your fans and followers. What are some social media mistakes that you have learned to avoid?

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