Social Media Blunders That Affect Online Reputation & Hurt ROI
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Social media is no longer restricted to sharing updates but has turned into a marketing channel through which users connect with their favourite brands. People use social networks for keeping track of offers and updates of various brands while businesses remain active to maintain one-to-one relationship with customers. In the course of attracting social media users, few blunders are committed repeatedly and unknowingly that affect online reputation and takeaway the potential benefits like brand popularity, leads and social traffic.
There are two parameters to define whether your social media presence is effective or not:
1. Quantitative
- Fans, likes, followers
- Engagement
- Click through rate
2. Qualitative
- User sentiments
- Influence
- Conversion drives
How a brand scores high or low on all the above-said parameters depends on the social media strategy. If your social pages are not getting enough followers or fail to generate leads/traffic then it’s time to review if you are repeating following blunders:
1. Confused Social Networking
Trying to be on all social media platforms without analyzing where the target audience is active is the major blunder committed by businesses. Whether you own small scale retail, a popular local business, or a big brand, identifying your target customers and then identifying the right places to interact with them is the prerequisite of effective social media management.
If a women clothing store shares fashion tips on Facebook, it earns reputation of a style expert among women shoppers but if it focuses on all kind of updates with no focus on its specialized area, it ends up pleasing none.
2. Slipshod Posting
Whether you post too often or post repetitive updates, the haphazardness gleams clearly on your social page. It kills user engagement and makes your presence unnoticeable on social networks. Social media users have higher tendencies to unlike/unfollow businesses that pile on their feeds.
3. Copied posts
Pages that update copied posts never impress social media users. A socially active netizen always looks for new things and if you are serving what’s omnipresent, you are only giving him/her a chance to ignore or not notice you at all.
Apply Ethical Ways to Improve Brand Reputation and Secure Long Term Results
4. Unformed Interactions
Replies that have no shape are rather unappealing. Whether a follower sends personal message, leaves complaint or comments under your status update, in all cases you have to sound professional and reasonably fair/credible/interesting. But mostly the instances of poor social media management appear when brands either fail to personalize interactions or troll past personalization & sound personal.
5. Rampant Hashtags
The use of hashtags is so widespread that people can’t help but use clusters of hashtags without any goal or planning. Half of the businesses seem to follow this trend haphazardly and thus appear in negative searches. Using it too often and too much is the biggest blunder.
6. Improper use of tools
Just like you know how many visitors click through your PPC ad or visit your website daily, knowing when, where and how your brand is being mentioned on social media networks is also important. Instead of analysis, companies use tools to share posts, which is not a bad idea in case you have too much to do and too less time to post all updates. But this practice should be followed least as you can’t engage with users without personalized social media management.
7. Commercial campaigning
Few businesses indulge in aggressive campaigning thinking that they can cash in on every post. It brings no returns and gradually kills user interest in a brand. Too many commercial posts on a business page make it look self-seeking and crates disconnect between brand and its followers
8. Poor responding structure
Response to users’ tweets, comments, and mentions should be well-timed and appropriate. If you are not replying to their comments when they expect, you are most likely to lose one opportunity to humanize your brand. On the other hand, you build a reputation of uncaring product/service provider.
9. Paid likes and fans
Paid likes are fake and thus fail to bring quality leads and revenue to a business. By adding paid likes you only add few more numbers that cannot be converted into visits or purchases. Adding friends for that matter is unworkable too as they too are not your target customers.
Don’t repeat the blunders done by others. Focus on following Tips to Attract Users and Boost Returns:
1. Real time tracking
Just tracking new likes is not enough. Observing user sentiments is the precise way to create lead generation strategy for social media pages is more than important. Make use of social media monitoring tools like Hootsuite, SproutSocial, and Social Mention etc. to gauge response of fans and followers and personalize each of your future updates accordingly.
2. Focus on response rate and time
Engaging with your target audience is the best way to build positive image online. Brands that have enough popularity on social networks tend to have upper hand while dealing with negative reputation too. Responding to users’ comments, messages frequently and timely can boost their interest in you. Never miss the chance to address a query, appreciate an effort or entertain complaint of a user as it’s going to leave an impression on other users too.
Respond Professionally and Timely To Avoid a Sad State of Affairs
3. Count interactions and not numbers
User engagement is the core of social media management and the brands that use it effectively succeed to build long term relationship with their customers. Do things that can add personalization to your social media strategy like extend thanks, reply frequently, mention users, like their posts, share few, and highlight good interactions by quoting them.
4. Invest in Real time customer engagement
Real time actions are worth your investment in social media. If you want to make your social pages a good source of leads and referrals then make your posts reach the users in real time. Use the real-time trick to sound genuine and build reputation of a trusted brand.
5. Less is more in Social Media
Users cannot be stuffed with long posts whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any such social site. The role of images, videos and infographics is crucial for boosting user engagement as the attention span of such posts is higher as compared to lengthy text based updates.
Following all above tips of social media you will not only increase website traffic but also improve search engine rankings. The sites with user generated content get ranked higher in search engine results too.
Apart from the evident benefits, you can raise brand awareness, generate leads and gather positive feedbacks. All this can be attained at a cost literally one-third or even less of your total digital marketing budget, if your social media is handled appropriately. That’s how most of brands cut down the cost and boost ROI.
Never Waste an Opportunity to Woo Your Customers
To take experts’ advice regarding social media presence of your business, consult w3Police. As brand reputation management advisor of several businesses sited globally, the company has notable experience and talented team to help all businesses and professionals grow their brand value through social media networks. Leave your query.
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