What Not To Do on Social Media

Do you want to create an excellent social media presence for your business?

Are you tired of reading through lengthy articles for helpful tips that will help you rope in those likes and views?

We know the pain. That is why we have done a round-up about what you should NOT do on social media.

Let’s get started right away. Here are a few things not to do on social media!

Social Media No-No #9: Wing it

Here’s the cardinal rule for a successful anything- PREPARE IN ADVANCE.
Avinash Chandra

Social media posts are no exception. Except for those times when you have to do something spontaneous, you MUST have a proper plan for posting.

How to ensure that?

It would help if you had a proper social media calendar for every month. This will help you cover special days and create content that is seasonally appropriate for your brand.

For example, for a brand like Cadbury, the time to go the extra mile for social media engagement is the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. The reason- chocolates sell the most during the season of romance.

So here is what you should do:

Decide beforehand what posts to put for what day of the week. Do this at least a month in advance.
Have your posts done at least a week prior. This makes sure that you don’t miss out on posting.
If you don’t plan, you will not see results. So ensure that you stay ahead of the curve- you can always add something spontaneous, but that should not become your default strategy.

Social Media NO-No #8: Try to sell all the time

Yes, if you have a product- you should promote it on your social media. Here’s the catch- if that is all you do- your target audience will drop off.

How annoyed do those hard-sell phone calls make you? If you are only pushing for sales on social media- you become that dreaded hard seller to your followers.

Even if you post about your products- you should try to engage rather than sell on social media. If you want some inspiration, check out the social media for Netflix. They do a great job of talking about their movies without asking you to pay up.

Social Media NO-No #7: Post sporadically

Look up any brand that you like on social media. They all post regularly.

You should do it too.

See, the moment you stop posting, you lose your traction on the platform.

Any handle that updates content on the regular is favored by the algorithms and gain momentum faster.

Not to mention- social media platforms have TONNES of brands that generate a tremendous amount of content every minute. Your audience will never lack something to look at, but YOU will lose out of your audience. It’s a classic case of “out of sight, out of mind.”

Social Media NO-No #6 Overthink your content

Social media is a place where you have to be consistent. If you dawdle too much over what to post, you will end up wasting time.

Think of the Twitter handle for Merriam Webster. The dictionary is an internet legend for its funny comebacks and witty posts. But do you see it post something epic every day?

Of course not. Most days, it posts about standard stuff. That’s because the brand knows that posting regularly is more important than hitting a 100 every day.

Great Example of What to do on Social Media

So don’t overthink it. Even if you commit a mistake or have a typo- it really doesn’t matter in the long run for your brand.

It doesn’t matter if your post today doesn’t make it to the internet hall of fame. There is always tomorrow. What is important is that you keep posting.

Social Media NO-No #5 Ignore comments & DMs

The primary aim of being on social media is to INTERACT with people. So when people DO interact with your brand- you should take the convo forward enthusiastically.

Check your comments and DMs. Is someone asking a question? Is there some good feedback there? Does someone have a suggestion? Or is someone simply saying they like you?

Engage with your audience. Answer them- it shows them that you care. You can look at brands like Wendy’s, which regularly converses with its audience- and even gives some sassy replies.

Social Media NO-No #4 Posting creatives and videos that look unfinished

The world has moved ahead in terms of technology. As a result, our expectations about media and technology have changed significantly.

If you are posting photos or videos- make sure they are professionally edited and look polished. Social media is a powerful PR tool, and you want to put your best foot forward for it.

Well done photos and videos create a good impression on your audiences and are more engaging.

Secondly, good quality visual content shows that your brand is well equipped technically. In the age of technology, it is a definite plus.

Yes, even the memes you want to use. Edit them carefully.

Social Media NO-No #3 Come across as fake

Make sure there is no disconnect between your brand’s personality and its social media messaging. Be authentic.

Imagine a brand like Microsoft. If today it starts to write its posts using gangsta rap words, it will feel incongruous. Similarly, if Bill Nye the Science Guy starts using sports jargon- it will have a pretty jarring effect.

Make sure your brand messaging is consistent. Don’t try to pretend to be something you are not. If you do, you will end up confusing your audience and putting them off.

Social Media NO-No #2 Never have CTAs

Yes, selling on social media is tricky. But you should have a clear CTA for every post that you make.

Let’s look at it this way- every post has a purpose. When you are posting something on social media, you want your audience to take some desired action. It may be something as simple as wanting them to subscribe to your channel.

If you want something from your audience, you have to prompt them to do it. Whether you want them to buy something, or click on the link or visit your website- you should always have a CTA.

Think of the popular YouTubers like That Guy With The Glasses or Yashraj Mukhate. Every post of theirs comes with a CTA. Their video descriptions will always ask you to follow, like, or share. You should do the same.

Social Media NO-No #1 Act like a billboard

After doing all that, here is the most important tip for you- INTERACT. Your social media handles are not static billboards- your job doesn’t stop after you put up a post.

You have to engage your audience actively. You have to find new ways to initiate conversation. How can you do it?

Go live from time to time
Conduct relevant polls
Ask them questions
Take questions from them and address them in your posts and videos
Post behind the scene stuff to give your audiences a chance to be participants in your brand’s story
Tag people
Conduct contests
Put up puzzles
Ask for their feedback
Give a shoutout to, share, and cross-promote other relevant social media handles and users.

The more you do this, the more activity you are likely to see. Start slowly- and with time, diversify your posts so that you can initiate more conversations.

Conclusion

Remember, social media is like a cycle. The more active you are, the more you will engage, and the more you engage with your audience, the more involved they will be- which will give you more ideas for staying active.

If you feel like you need help coming up with an excellent social media strategy, talk to us. Connect with my social media marketing agency to discuss social media strategy.

FAQ’s

What shouldn’t you post on social media?

So here are six things to not post on social media:
Outdated trends: Social media posts that are not up-to-date with current trends are at a new low. So, you must do proper research before posting anything
Insensitive content: be funny but avoid insensitive or intolerant remarks
Social media posts without any proper plan
Too much self-promotional material: Engage more, Sell less. You shouldn’t promote to sell but connect with your target audience
Occasional posts: Post regularly. If you post at intervals, you will lose your followers and your presence on the platform
Posting unfinished work or skipping the editing process shows that the brand is incompetent, and we don’t want that. People must notice our work and connect with us immediately

What makes an excellent social media promotion?

Social media strategies potentially engage you with your potential audience. If you don’t offer your audience value, you will see no good results. It connects your audience to your business on a personal level.
So, on the same terms, we are going to discuss a few social media promotion ideas:
– Updating content outside of business hours is not feasible, since then your audience is inactive on social media.
– Your Post must have high-quality and authentic content:
– Reward your most loyal customers/audience: This way, more followers will get attracted to your post and engage regularly.
– Study the social media strategies of competitors and learn from them.
– Use promotional keywords to tempt your audience but make sure the content matches your website.
– Your focus must be on driving traffic to your website by testing different posts materials to see what reflects best with your audience.
– Keeping up with trends and statistics
– Create hashtags to engage with your audience.
– Integrating social media icons to your website brings more followers to your social media handles. Integrate your brand colors into the icons.
– Add some value to your content by making more accessible, readable content via infographics.

What are different models of social media promotion?

Social media models are generated by analyzing available data patterns. Tracking social media it allows your company to gain feedback and draw insights to market better.

So, you create models based on your desired outcomes or understanding. Thus, three of the most common models include predictive, descriptive, and prescriptive.

Predictive model?
As the name suggests, the predictive model helps predict what will happen and why it will happen. This model work best for brands engaged in lots of human interaction and having a large amount of social media data.

How predictive model works in social media?
– This model brings out customer patterns decoded from past and transactional data to identify risks and opportunities.
– This model ranks customers by their preferences and guides your decision-making. In the predictive model analysis, you get model data that can help you predict correctly and take actions accordingly.

Descriptive model
This model is used in sales and marketing reports. Descriptive models are practical tools of business intelligence. This model tells what happened and what is happening to help you plan. For example, you can use data to create a model to understand customer insights into marketing activity. And by analyzing such information, you can categorize customers by their preferences.

In social media, customer comments, posts, and mentions are descriptive data. Descriptive model tool structure allows more transparency to the data analytics and enables customer data to into what would work and what wouldn’t work for you.

Prescriptive model
Analyses a combination of numerical, categorical, and big data and AI, machine learning, human interaction, and business rules and sciences; the prescriptive model suggests possible decisions.

This model is best practice to optimize operational efficiency, mitigate risk and manage resources. The variables help to understand what you should do, what actions are appropriate, and why you should do them.

The information you gather through analytics allows you to form predictive, descriptive, and prescriptive models. By understanding and predicting customers’ behavior using existing models, marketers can understand their future actions to maximize the value of each customer.

What is a common issue with social media marketing?

Here are some common issues with social media marketing:
– The first issue would be defining clear marketing goals. You must define your objectives to measure your marketing performance and demonstrate its value to stakeholders. And unclear marketing goals affect the budget for future campaigns.

– The second factor would be Identifying the correct issue, in which the next hurdle that marketers face is selecting which platforms to leverage. Few marketers thoroughly research their target markets to identify the media where their target audience is active. There is no connection between customers and marketers. LinkedIn is used by 38% of social media marketers, while only 6% of consumers use it to follow brands. Marketers are wasting their efforts & resources on unreliable platforms.

– Thirdly, understanding the target audience: Take the time to know your audience. Divide your demographics to learn about their genders, ages, and locations. Then, meet them where they are active.

– Fourthly, they degrade natural reach and engagement rates: Organic distance on leading social platforms decreases. And the cost of paid ads is increasing. Brands are struggling to keep a balance between goals and budget. Make your platforms work for you. Know the algorithms well.

– And finally, one of the main issues is when some brands prefer to buy engagement through social media, but that is challenging. Ad costs are increasing, and competition is brutal. Harder to recover investments and make a profit from such paid advertisements.

What are the biggest challenges & opportunities facing social media professionals today?

The challenges faced by social media professionals are as follows:
1 – Time management
2 – Quality of followers
3 – Understanding channel dynamics
4 – A future-proofed strategy.
5 – Keeping in touch.
6– Content freshness.
7 – More trust and transparency
8- Measuring ad effectiveness
9 – Building brand stories
10 – Remind your audience about what you offer and why you’re the best at it. That is one of the significant social media challenges.
11 – Get your customers talking
12 – Continuous improvement
13 – Support social media
14 – Crisis management: Poor social media platform posts can create a negative reflex. It can cause irreversible damage to your brand’s financial standing and market reputation. So, Develop a crisis management plan to deal with negative feedback without deleting comments on Facebook or deactivating Instagram accounts.

The most significant opportunities would be Social media opportunities for business. It is now easier for companies to:
– Directly target customers with marketing campaigns and strategies
– Promote new products or services through social media platforms
– Build brand awareness and advertise
– Personally interact with existing and potential customers and improve accordingly
– Measure referrals from your social media activity to sales.

Social media is a marketing tool; it needs a plan, proper research, regular maintenance, and a strong sense of customer engagement.