The speed of Social Media adoption and strategy is getting faster and more complex everyday. It’s very difficult to know for sure what tactics will get you the best results. There are many companies still in the dark about the value of social marketing and advertising…and still many more who are stuck in 2011 with their social marketing tactics.
The success of your social marketing tactics lies in the content and how you publish and promote it. Everything revolves around how your content is consumed by your audience. Each platform requires certain specific tactics but overall, with a solid content strategy, social media is where you reach your ideal customers…and stay in contact with your current customers.
How many of these outdated social marketing tactics are you still doing?
1. Asking for Likes and Retweets.
This tactic is a “call-to-action” that, by many standards works, but people are smarter now. Too many marketers have tried to use it just to gain a better ranking. Facebook got wise to it and now they’re penalizing pages who use it (at least that’s what they say although I haven’t seen any enforcement of this). Either way, stop it. The best way to get likes and retweets is to publish awesome stuff.
2. Your profiles are a commercial for your products/services.
The best content tells stories. Stories about what it’s like to do business with you, what you do in the community, and how you help your customers. If your stories are all about your products & services, that’s not storytelling. That’s a brochure.
3. Twitter Automatic Direct Messages.
Auto DMs are a blight to our social landscape. They were always annoying and now they damage your brand. When someone follows you on Twitter, if you feel compelled to say something, just tweet them back (no DM). Don’t ask someone for a favor when you’ve just met them!
4. Setting up Tweets to automatically post to Facebook and vice versa.
This just looks like you’re lazy. People on Twitter and Facebook know if your content came from the other one. It’s ok to use the same content but take the time to reformulate it for each platform.
5. Only posting once or twice a day on Facebook.
The algorithms on Facebook have changed immensely in the last few years. The fact is that very few of your fans see your content now. Posting more often helps more fans see your content. But please don’t take this as a green light to post random content. You still need to have a solid content strategy where each time you post, it’s something that stands out to those you want to attract and have conversations with.
6. Ignoring what people are saying on Yelp or Google+Local.
I actually had a business owner tell me, “Oh, I don’t care what those people on Yelp say.” He had horrible reviews to prove it. It’s time to buck up and implement an internal process for capturing your happy, loyal customers opinions. When 84% of people say their purchase decisions are influenced by online reviews, it’s dangerous to ignore the opportunities.
7. Not using images with your posts.
Nearly every social platform has been enhanced to accommodate visual content. It’s widely known that visual content speaks louder than most any form of communication so let this be a driving force in your content strategy and publication.
8. Expecting your fans to see your content without running Facebook ads.
By now, you’ve probably seen the organic reach of your Facebook page falter to nearly nothing. Facebook has informed us that they had to restrict content to users in order to “deliver the best overall experience for the user.” No matter how you feel about this statement, the fact is that Facebook is now pay-to-play. Set an engagement goal for your page (10% is a good starting goal) and run some Page Post Engagement ads on the updates that are worthy of more attention.
9. Posting to your blog once every month or so.
This tactic says to search engines and your customers, “Hey, we don’t care enough to bother helping you but once a month.” Consistent posts at least twice a week help customers find you faster and appreciate the information. Search engines crawl for fresh, relevant content. Prospects crawl the web looking for helpful info. Publish blog posts regularly and you satisfy both.
10. Ignoring Social Customer Service.
71% of people who receive great social customer care recommend that brand to their friends and family. Make it easy for fans and followers to contact you. Social customer service is a vehicle for customer retention. Wouldn’t you like to retain every customer you can?
Great article Kathi, thank you. I think point 5 is probably the most important takeaway. What would you say the ideal range would be? 3-5 posts a day?
Personally, Adam, I think those numbers are spot on for Facebook, maybe a little higher for Twitter.
Yes, Adam. 3-5 is a great place to start, depending on your tolerance and time. Then keep checking analytics to make sure that works. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Great points all round, Kathi – although I’d disagree with #3. If you’re an alcohol brand or a gambling brand, and you need to clarify age with a self-proclamation link, that should be DM’d, and Twitter has this service in place through an agreement with Salesforce. Sometimes the auto-DM does have its place. 🙂
Hi Danny! Oh yes, that is a great point about minimum age for regulated industries. I like the Salesforce integration too – I was not aware of that. Thanks so much for taking time to read my post. You’re one of my heroes 🙂
Great post, Kathi! I especially like #2! 🙂
PREACH! Great post!
So true! – especially 4.
Another great post from the master herself! And another of the ongoing reasons KruseControlinc.com is a daily MUST READ!
Hi Ellen! All serious marketing and advertising is pay-to-play and social media is serious now. Depending on how small the business is, there needs to be some budget for marketing it, right? Yes, long ago FB was easier without spending on ads but a solid content strategy has always been needed for FB or any other social media channel. Doing it right takes expertise and if a business doesn’t have that they need to hire it.
While Google Plus is important to an extent with regard to getting your business’ content seen on search, many users are turned off by it (I’m one of them). It would take an analysis of each business to see if it works for their particular audience.
All social media costs money: whether it’s in time, skill, expertise or actual dollars. FB ads are pretty awesome and depending on your business, can get great results with a few hundred dollars per month. But again, this is only if your ideal customer is on FB. The key is knowing where your ideal customers spend their time 🙂
Point 3 made my day! Why? WHY!!! #Twitterfail
Thanks, Sam. Why…indeed.
Hi Kathi, Your post is a must-read for small businesses and big brand social media departments alike. At one time, I sent out individual DM’s to people as they started to follow me; sending more to more ‘influential’ followers, However, that effort became too much of an effort.
Too many businesses, big and small, are misspending their their time and resources on things that they THINK will drive results.
@GerryMoran
Thanks Gerry! You’re right about businesses spending too much time on what they THINK will drive results. Very often they aren’t even sure what results look like other than number of fans/followers.