For brands looking to increase their visibility, boost their engagement with clients, develop a good reputation and market their brand, social media can be the ideal platform. It is free to join, which makes it appealing to brands. The platform also has a large number of users, with close to 3.7 billion people active across different platforms every month. If you are looking for a great avenue for growth, setting up on social media could be the best strategic move.
Why should you set up on social media? You will be able to increase your visibility, thanks to the high user numbers. Potentially, every popular social media platform will have a high number of followers from your target demographic. I you are looking for avenues to get to these clients, who are more likely to make a purchase than others, social media can be the right platform for you. There are also many targeting options which can help you access your desired client profile without having to achieve this organically. You can reach your desired followers through a 1000 like Instagram investment, retargeting Facebook strategy, promoted Twitter campaign and other specific personalized ad strategies on different platforms.
Social media may be a dangerous platform for brands that engage in inconsistent and unplanned activity. The risk to your reputation is so severe that you could be better off completely avoiding social media than engaging in the wrong type of activity. So, how should you act on social media? These are some of the most common mistakes brands may make on social media.
Leaving it up to chance
The range of benefits that could be accrued through investment in paid advertising options is too big to ignore. Even though there is massive interest in brand activity online, with over 80% of followers on most platforms keeping up with at least one brand, there is a significant risk of slow growth I you target organic measures to achieve it. You could be forced to wait a long time to meet your goals, which may water down the potential benefit of social media to your brand. Instead of leaving it to chance you should invest in paid advertising options to increase your ability to grow, just as you would consider investing in other aspects of your brand. The frugal brand owner should be glad to find out that these are significantly inexpensive than any other marketing options available through traditional avenues, and carry greater likelihood of success. They may even be accessed for free on a trial basis to help you determine whether they are a viable option for your brand.
Going in unplanned
Do you have a social media strategy? What type of clients do you want to attract? How will you use social media to grow your brand? Are there any specific and actionable goals you want to achieve? There are many strategic questions that will guide your social media planning before you even set up on the platform. You need to understand how you will use social media to get ahead in order to actually benefit. Without careful planning, you could end up engaging in pointless social media activity that could have little impact on your ability to benefit. If you do not have any idea as to how social media activity may affect your goals, you may consider speaking to social media professionals or receiving mentorship from other successful brands to develop your own social media strategy.
Lacking sufficient capacity
Do you have enough people on your team to handle your social media activity? Before you set up your accounts, you need to make sure you can handle the increased staffing needs. Many people, as mentioned above, will be unlikely to trust brands that are inconsistent in their activity. By setting up on social media without sufficient capacity, you could run the risk of harming your potential clients’ trust in your brand. Instead, you should make careful considerations about your staffing capacity to avoid any such eventuality. If you do not have enough staff to handle a social media account, you should avoid setting up on the platform. In fact, you should have at least one more member of staff or your social media activity than social platforms you choose to set up on. This will ensure you do not accrue a negative perception on social media.
Ignoring user engagement
Social media users will take to the platform to seek customer services and other benefits to them that may require engagement with your brand. You will be able to create value by maintaining user engagement and taking up a problem solving approach or users who may require it. If you do not engage with your followers, chances are high that they will lose interest in your social media activity and could be deterred from taking up business with your brand. The consequence of this is that you will be unable to reach your desired metrics of growth. You need to ensure that you have sufficient staffing capacity to handle their needs, the importance of which has been underscored above. You may also need to interact with all your followers, regardless of the nature of their comments or queries. If users are deemed as being negative, ignoring them could present unfavorable brand values. Fewer people will be likely to interact with your brand because they will not be guaranteed a helpful response in the event that they experience trouble with your products and services. You can leverage such negative responses to build brand loyalty and showcase positive values that could attract more followers to your brand and help build loyalty.
Final word
Setting up on social media requires careful consideration to avoid potentially harmful consequences for your brand. Always remember that the internet never forgets, which may mean that consequences to your brand from an unfavorable perception on social media could be thorough and lasting. In order to avoid stunted growth, you may need to incorporate these aspects into your social media best practices.
