Proceed With Caution

The Top 5 Mistakes of Social Media Marketing

- Pam Lontos and Maurice Ramirez, Ph. D

http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/analysis/articles/57249-top-5-mistakes-social-media-marketing.htm

We've heard about the mistakes of posting inappropriate things on our social networking pages. How they can work against us with employment opportunities, and how too much information provided can get in the hands of the wrong people.

Now, as businesses begin to latch on social networking sites, the mistakes companies make using these networks have become as frequent as the mistakes people use on their own pages.

In this article, the authors offer the top 5 mistakes business owners or directors make. The mistakes mentioned seem to be the result of a misconception in the mind of the person running the networking page or account. For instance, a very common mistake not only businesses make, but people as well, is the friend count.

1. For Ashton Kutcher, collecting 1 million followers on Twitter may be cool. But for businesses? Not so much. Businesses shouldn't attempt to win the popularity contest, because according to this article... it will backfire--and I agree. No business can appeal to absolutely everybody, so why would it want everybody following it on Twitter? The authors look at each follower or friend as a business contact.

"When you collect a contact, you're supposed to be opening the door to exchange information and build a relationship" (Lontos and Ramirez).

2. The second mistake businesses make we've talked about several times in past classes: having too many faces of a brand. Just as it is confusing for a brand sending different images of itself and different messages, the same holds true for brands on social networking sites. The authors mention that the goal of using Social Marketing Media is to virally spread parts of your images across the web that form a framework to develop a whole, complete image of the brand. Everything out there needs to match and make sense with what the business is about.

3. Using the same networking sites as personal users is fine. But according to the authors, businesses must be strategic about what is posted, as opposed to personal users who talk about what they just ate for dinner or read in a book, etc. To spread messages virally, business leaders need to post messages that are useful to its readers so those readers post it to their sites. "The key is to keep your messages consistent. Remember that people are subscribing to various feeds in order to get your information" (Lontos and Ramirez.)

Although I agree with this, I wish the authors would've mentioned the importance of showing some type of personality- or flare- through postings. We as readers want to see what the business is really like. Show us something real rather than just try text.

4. Posting inappropriate information... the authors shared a bite-you-in-the-ass example of a CEO who posted on his private Facebook a photo of he and a woman whom he was vacationing with at a nude beach. A friend saw the photo, thought it was great and posted it on his Facebook. Then it went private, and his wife found out. Soon he was fired. (That's a spark notes version of the example-but it shows the caliber of one stupid decision.) "Never post anything on any site that you wouldn't personally show your own grandmother" (Lontos and Ramirez.)

I can see what the authors mean by this statement, but this piece of advice won't sit the same with every reader. Employers and grandmothers may not share the same feelings about a drunk picture of me mooning the photographer. Grandma would think it's funny... someone else though probably wouldn't.

5. The last mistake so often made is the wrong assumption that it is better to have your message in only one place on the Internet. Once believed to ruin credibility and diminish the unique factor,the more your message can appear simultaneously, the more effective the message will be. Spread the news. And spread it all over.

"Think of it as constructing a funnel. You want to lay several trails of information, all of which leads to your main site" (Lontos and Ramirez).

The theory of selling out is no longer valid. Be everywhere and as accessible as possible to anyone looking to learn about your brand.

If used effectively, Social Media Marketing can work in ways that help businesses connect with their consumers easier than ever, not to mention break into the marketplace faster than ever. This new form of PR is slowly eliminating traditional PR methods. Without the proper social network etiquette, businesses could flop just as quickly as the time it took to establish a footprint in the marketplace.