Social media is an excellent tool to increase engagement and bring potential customers into your business. It can also serve as a great way to have good customer service. But there are many ways social media can be detrimental to your business if it's not done right. Here are some tips on social media mistakes you'll want to avoid.

HAVE A COMPLETE PROFILE

There is nothing more confusing to a customer than to look on any social media platform and see an account that looks interesting but does not have all the information it should. Take advantage of everything the platform has to offer. Share your website, email, phone number, brand hours, and anything else you can think of. This will vary from platform to platform but be sure your profile looks like you took time to make it as informative as possible.

DIVERSIFY YOUR POSTS

Let's look at Instagram; for example, if you post only the same type of photo, your feed can look very one-dimensional and boring for viewers. Be sure you include different colors and different kinds of images all the time. Using tools like canva can be very helpful for planning out posts that make your feed diversified. So you can post pictures of people using your product or service, photos of the products, quotes from customers, and so much more. The same applies to other platforms; be sure to continually use different types of content.

NOT ENGAGING WITH THE AUDIENCE REGULARLY

Social media is meant to be an online social interaction platform. So posting but not engaging with your audience is something you will want to avoid. You want to make sure your audience knows that a real person is behind the screen and responding to comments, answering questions, and looking at others in their network. Whether a comment is public or private, make sure you engage with it. Social media is more of a relationship-building tool than a sales tool 80% of the time. This means it is very important to stay on top of the relationships you build on social media. Keep in mind that you do not need to be on all platforms; some are better suited for your business than others. When you are on one, though, either commit or get out. It can be difficult to answer comments and questions right as they come in but finding a way to manage this can be incredibly helpful in the long run. If potential customers see many unanswered comments, it will look as if the customer service is not responsive. Having a periodic routine for responding is a good strategy for many.

NOT SCHEDULING CONTENT IN ADVANCE

It can seem cumbersome to create content every day with the stress of knowing you need to get something posted, looking good on your feed, and engaging with comments and other accounts. Taking time at the beginning of each month or each week to make a quick plan for what you will post that month or week is very useful and can save you time in the long run. Starting with what you know you want to prioritize can be helpful. If you know you have a sale or event coming up, you can plan those posts first then plan the rest around them.

Social media marketing is a fun way to stay engaged with your community. Once you have a strategy and know what to avoid, it will be easy for you and your business.

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