How to avoid a social media faux pas and reap the rewards.
When running a business, social media can tend to get swept under the rug – we’ve certainly been guilty of that. Missing a post is a non-consequential sin, there are no immediate repercussions of neglecting your socials. However, you aren’t taking advantage of a free marketing tool that could reap benefits for your business.
Social media can be used in many ways; creating a community of like-minded people in your business sector, sharing a portfolio of your work and updates on what’s to come, interacting with or reaching out to new clients and even expanding your social circle for collaborations or recruitment.
So you can reap the benefits of an active online presence, whilst avoiding a social faux pas, here’s our list of the most common social media mistakes:
1. So, you think you can schedule?
Posting updates can quickly become a chore rather than a thought-out marketing strategy, leading to incohesive and messy feeds.
Scheduling posts is an extremely handy tool for a fast-paced business. There are great free tools available such as Hootsuite and Later, that’ll allow you to plan your content and schedule your posts in advance. We all know it can be difficult to remember posting at the optimised times when dealing with the hustle and bustle of a modern business, which is why we’d recommend having a scheduling tool to help.
2. Wht dooes tha saay?
There is no excuse for poor spolling, granmar and punc:tuat-ion, after all, a missing comma is the difference between “Let’s eat, Grandma” and “Let’s eat Grandma”.
Social media isn’t a spelling bee, but you can’t just wing it. Spelling and grammar on social media is another easy mistake that reflects badly on your business. Our team is no stranger to spelling mistakes, there are plenty of good, free spelling and grammar checkers out there, use them in your socials, on the web, in word and on blogs (i’ll do that in a minute!!).
3. A post a day keep the doctor away
Posting daily isn’t a new concept but having to be more relatable to your consumers’ lives is. Relevant posts at peak times will encourage interaction from your audience and potentially gain new followers. There’s a fine line between posting daily and spamming your feed. Depending on the platform this number can change, it’s recommended – 1 post every other day for Instagram, up to 3 tweets a day on Twitter, and 1 post a week on Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn. You’ll benefit more from taking your time planning higher-quality posts than just posting for the sake of it… don’t stress though, it’s okay to miss a day.
You don’t have to have a presence on all platforms but remaining active on the ones that work best for you is important to keep your business up to date and relevant.
4.@errorhelpfinduser_327
Although this may sound obvious, usernames are a holy grail online and consistency is key. When starting a business use tools such as Checkusernames.com or whatsmyname.app to check which platforms your desired username is available on. Having different usernames on different platforms is a big NO-NO. You need to make it simple for you to be found easily, even if that means getting creative with your username.
Another major error that many businesses make is spelling mistakes with multiple, missing or changed letters, again making the username easily forgettable. Underscores and numbers have the same effect as misspelling, requiring consumers to use more of their time trying to find you. You’ll need a name that works on all platforms for your brands, consistency is key.
5. Double-tap
Just posting on social media isn’t enough, people commonly will only like and comment on their personal accounts. Your audience wants to see you are active, so like comments and share posts to gain traction with your following. This will decrease the unfollows you get as they will see you as a valuable follower. If people tag you in something, add it to your story, this will give your audience another way to engage with your business! You want to be seen as an active participant, so don’t be afraid to respond and comment!