Common Mistakes Made with Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) is no longer the “new kid on the block”. This internet marketing channel has really become an integral part of many organizations online marketing campaigns.

Social media marketing can be described as a “word of mouth” form of marketing. What some often forget though is that the true goal of social media marketing is to provide useful and relevant information to people. If leverage correctly, buzz and search engine visibility will happen naturally.

The problem is that some don’t take this goal to heart and are making many mistakes along the way. On the web perception outweighs intent. How people perceive your social media marketing efforts will affect your organizations reputation, as well as the ability to connect with customers.

Top ThreeSocial Media Mistakes

1. Participating in to many tools – Signing up and building a profile on every new tool is not the best strategy to take. (I have been guilty of this myself) When you try and manage more then a handful of profiles you usually end up with what they call “naked profiles”. A naked profile contains little to no information. In order to get anything out of social media platforms you have to be willing to invest time into building up quality content rich profiles.
   
   
2. Self Promotion Overload – Social media users generally frown upon self-promotion.
   However from my experience I’ve found that the 80/20 rules works just fine. Promoting yourself and your services in moderation is ok as long as you are an active member of the community. When you use the service solely as a promotional platform and don’t provide anything of the value to the community that’s when they start to label you as a “spammer”
   
   
3. Setting up & Ignoring - Social media is similar to SEO in that it's a process. It’s a time investment and one that you need to take seriously in order to be successful. After you've set up your profile, go into the community, listen and participate.