Nicholas Kalavas, CEO of CFM Group, writes:
All this is correct, to a certain extent. Having a social media page is one thing, but being able to manage each one of them in the correct manner to attract leads, generate engagement and create relationships is quite another.
I often get clients who note to me that they have managed their social media for the past few years and are not very successful but as they keep hearing about its potential benefits, they decided to come and have a chat with me. I usually then ask them where they found me and their answer is usually the same … on Social Media !!!
So let’s have a look at six common mistakes companies make when managing their social media and that you could easily avoid to improve your digital presence and increase your online footprint.
- Social media is not just for Marketing
Social media can obviously be tremendously useful when it comes to advertising your company to key audiences, especially when we are all aware of the huge numbers of users the platforms accommodate daily. However, that does not mean you cannot make use of other benefits they are now able to offer - as Social Media companies are constantly growing and offering new options to their services. Having a strong social media presence relies on making use of these benefits, such as generating leads, recruiting, praising staff and clients, responding to customer service queries and conducting questionnaires.
- Using an Intern
This is something I come across quite often and it truly “irritates” me to the core. A friend or even a client has hired a new intern and just because they mention having a Facebook account or overheard a friend running a Facebook campaign, the intern is given the right to fully manage the company’s most public communication channels. Social media management requires an in-depth understanding of your products, services and industry verticals, as well as knowledge of and experience in developing professional content aligned with business goals. You are correct to use them to perhaps make some photos, write the occasional blog article (which you will then review fully) or even follow some profiles for your Twitter to get a feel of it - but fully managing your profiles is ludicrous and could have a serious impact on your company’s social tone and profile.
- No clear strategy
On an average, one in every three minutes spent online is spent on a social network or messaging daily for one hour and 58 minutes. Moaning and whining social media is a brand killer. It’s like not training your customer support team how to answer their emails or phone calls. Every social media channel needs a unique plan for that platform (because no, they’re not all the same), based on actual goals and key performance indicators. It makes no sense to be spending time and money on something when you have not first specified why you are doing it. You would not do that in any other department of your company so do not do so on social media either. Be clear and very specific in your targets in order to be able to better track their results.
- Selling NOT Communicating
If an individual or company is in the process of choosing your company to work with and your Twitter and Facebook feeds are filled with ads and posts of your content and products or services only, it gives the impression that no one is engaged in monitoring your online presence. A self-serving feed looks self-centered and unprofessional. You must have a mix of curated content, retweets from other reputable sources and engagement in actual conversations with people. No one wants to follow a feed of your blog content; they can sign up for your blog RSS feed for that.
- Analyse your results
Beyond the realm of personal or craft business, there is no company in the world (big or small) that can expect to optimize its content without some form of social media measurement and analysis of their efforts. From defining key internal metrics to benchmarking against the efforts of their competitors, using the right tools to track progress and refine results is the foundation of any successful social media strategy and it is consequently key to improving your social media pages and the return you get from them.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment
Last but not least, do not be afraid to experiment. Run competitions, ask questions and more importantly run questionnaires on your company, content and staff to get a better feel of how your image is being perceived socially online. This will also give you an insight as to the types of posts your fans tend to respond to the most; hence being able to make use of similar posts in the future to extract valuable information.
It’s time for businesses to stop being afraid of social media and ignoring its importance by assigning it to interns or secretarial duties. In today’s interconnected world, a company’s social presence can have a bigger impact on its growth than its website or sales team. This makes it imperative for companies to avoid these basic mistakes and make better use of social media, whether it be their LinkedIn Page, Facebook or Twitter profile.
I’d love to hear your thoughts - simply feel free to click here to arrange a FREE Consultancy meeting, send me an email at Nick@CFMGroup.co.uk or Follow me below on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram