Top 10 Dos and Don’ts on Social Media for Marketing
Top 10 Dos and Don’ts on Social Media for Marketing
Part 1
Social media has grown to become a force nobody can choose to ignore. It is integral for not only individual persons but businesses, companies and other bodies too. Very few other mediums have the reach that social media provides easily. All you need is internet connection and a solid marketing strategy and you’re good to go. These marketing policies reach to a wide range of audiences, which too, you can customize according to necessity. So gone are the days or traditional advertising and marketing where there a hundred phone calls and meeting necessary before you got your message out to the public. There does exist an overwhelming number of platforms, but choose your areas well and focus on those which drive the maximum traffic to your website or business. These tips on the basic dos and don’ts of Social Media for Marketing will help you make your campaigns more successful and build a good brand.
The dos:
- Be clear, consistent and updated in your profiles
Nobody likes a half-finished profile. So no matter how popular the platform is whether or not you are very active on it or not, keep the profile completely updated and finished. Choose a small username that people can identify and remember easily. Do not use a long complicated username that reads like a sentence and not a brand. Fill out all necessary information. Have the about section brief but it should convey all necessary details. Link the website, put the call to action buttons in place, put links to portfolios or past work experiences and keep updating regularly. Use a bold logo efficiently throughout the profile as it helps for branding tremendously. Consistency while posting content is also important, as is consistency of information on all platforms.
- Keep the personal and professional separate
Don’t mess with your audience’s head by muddling up professional posts with sudden interceptions of family gatherings and other personal posts. Keep the content genre uniform. Also, do not have multiple profiles for the same brand as it confuses viewers.
- Build friendships and genuine relations
At the end of the day, social media is about forming bonds. If you mindlessly promote and only spam your viewers, they will grow to hate you. Engagement without spamming is crucial here. Respond to messages with care and consistency no matter how redundant or repetitive the queries are. Engage in comments too. Sending out automated updates once in a while is a good idea as well. Be transparent with your audience as well. They are humans like you and disappointing them may not be a good idea. Gain their trust, accept your flaws and build on the criticism you receive. Do not be rude or do anything that’ll create a negative image of your brand.
- Create engaging, informing and interesting content
Make sure your content has graphics and text that are eye catching and keeps the reader engaged. Parts of it can be directly selling products. Others should be information, trivia, fun and other such posts. Social media for business will not work if it’s boring generic things as people don’t have time for such things anymore. At Digital Floats, a premier training institute in Hyderabad, you can enroll for excellent training courses on social media marketing.
- Follow basic writing rules
Do not write in caps or in SMS language. It can be too overbearing for readers. Avoid every kind of grammatical or spelling errors and cross check to make sure you’re writing proper language. Everything else looks grossly unprofessional. Visuals should also have proper fonts and colors so that readability is always high. Do not use unnecessary hash tags to prove your point as they don’t help in any way. Use only absolutely necessary hash tags as they actually help boost your posts. Do not share the same content over and over again, as readers just get bored and stop following your profile. Use innovative ways to market the same concept or product. Use graphics for some posts, polls, videos and all other kinds of multimedia options to create diversity while posting about the same issue.
Part 2:
Don’ts:
- Don’t aimlessly chase a greater number of followers
For all we know, followers can be bought too in most social media platforms, most of which are fake and wont translate into actual business for you. So to do things in a better fashion, just focus on quality and the rest will fall into place. Having a follower base that connects with you and endorses your brand is what you should aim for. Spam accounts are a bane. Do not get caught us in the number maze as its completely pointless.
- Don’t be fake or pretend to be the best
We know that you love your brand and you think it is the best, but being humble is essential while you’re marketing on social media. Bragging will not take you too far. Also, don’t ever generate fake numbers or make fake claims as they only mislead audiences and once disappointed, they’ll never come back. Arrogance is a strict no. In today’s world, with tremendous competition, people will just pick another brand offering similar stuff, if you wave them away once. So be courteous and open to learning and innovating.
- Don’t be over ambitious
Social media platforms have been around for a while now and people have been using them far longer than you have, in all probability. Wanting overnight fame can be very hazardous. Keeping at it is one of the best things you can do. Keep sharing engaging content and don’t give up too easily. Remember that no great things can be done in a short while. Perseverance is the key here.
- Don’t plagiarize
While you might think that it’s okay to do so because it’s not on some printed form, social media plagiarism can lead you to deep trouble. Proper attribution and credit where due is important. This applies to text as well as images and illustrations. Also, mention the original twitter handle when you re-tweet. Not only is this basic social media marketing etiquette, but it helps you build a stronger network as well. Be appreciative of other brands too, when they attribute something to you instead of feeling jealous. In the end, a healthier community should be everyone’s final aim.
- Don’t spend all your time, energy and money on social media
While social media is great and will bear fruits, do not spend all your efforts here. Follow the saying, of not keeping all your eggs in one basket. There are several other aspects of your brand that need your attention so focus well on those too. Without genuine quality of your brand and services and products, social media will not help. Converting followers into buyers is only the first step and all the subsequent steps are equally, if not more, crucial. Only when customers are happy with your work, will they be likely to share and subscribe to your content again.
Social media marketing is a complex and complicated genre that needs attention and time to master. Once done, it can be a great tool to reach masses. Understand social media etiquette well is crucial here. We actually survive in a digitalized interconnected world, where even employers look at one’s social media profiles to gauge whether the person should be recruited. Conducting a search before buying products and reading the reviews too are common for brands. In such a scenario, one cannot afford to mess up their social media image. You can get yourself enrolled into the excellent social media marketing courses offered by Digital Floats, a renowned institute in Hyderabad, to get your marketing done correctly.
If you’re a big firm, make sure you have a code of conduct of social media dos and don’ts for employees too. But beware of spam. Unnecessary tagging, too many automated emails, the same content on all platforms and other such mechanism only tend to antagonize viewers. Remember to remain calm and composed even in the face of adversity, because unlike the human mind which forgets, social media can store very old data in its exact condition which can be dug up to ruin your image later.
