5 Tips From Our Social Media Marketing Specialist

Do You Know What You Should Never Do On Social Media?

If you’ve spoken to a social media marketing specialist, you may have heard that there are definite do’s and don’ts that any successful business needs to follow on social networks. The stakes are high on social media, as the risk of big mistakes going viral is just too great. Here’s a list of major social media faux pas that your company simply must avoid at all costs.

Don’t invade your fan’s personal Facebook pages by posting directly to their timeline.

A social media marketing specialist will tell you that this maneuver comes across as incredibly invasive. At best, your target will be irritated that you did it, It’s all too easy for them to inform their networks of what you did, and you will not just alienate the person who liked your Facebook page in the first place, but in one fell swoop, you could potentially manage to turn off everyone that person is connected to on social media, as well.

Don’t take advantage of hashtags about breaking news.

This has backfired for big name companies in the past. It’s simply not appropriate to interject information or quips about your products or services into what is effectively a global conversation about something that has nothing to do with your business. A social media marketing specialist would cringe to see this happen.

Don’t accidentally post personal information as your company.

When posting to a social network like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, double-check to make sure that you’re using the right profile. Your business’s fans don’t need to hear the minutiae of your life that you intended to tell your friends and family on your personal network. It’s happened before, and it’s gotten people fired.

Don’t plagiarize from other sources of information online.

What your teachers and professors in high school and college taught you about stealing work verbatim from other places, is just as true in social media, and the stakes are just as high. Your social media marketing specialist will tell you that you’re risking legal trouble, and that in the age of powerful search engines, it is all too easy to get caught. Plus, search engines will realize that you have copied your content, and will penalize you accordingly.

Don’t beg for follows on Twitter.

This is an awkward annoyance for your target audience. Twitter is no longer a numbers game—the number of followers you have has ceased to be a reliable indicator of your success with the network. Plus, it just looks a little pathetic. It implies that your content alone isn’t strong enough to attract and keep followers by itself.

There are many more ways to make serious mistakes on social networking that have not been covered in this blog post. A social media marketing specialist could give you advice specific to your company’s needs, taking what you’re already doing wrong—and right—into account.