Isaac Oladipupo
Having
connected users and created wealth for numerous people the world over,
social media remains one of the greatest things to evolve in our world,
at such a time like this. There’s no doubt about that, except when it
flips and becomes a really terrible thing. Social media is a great way
to build up a brand or business, but it also has the capacity to tear
down any brand just as quickly.
Can social media promote your business?
Absolutely! But just as social media platforms can make a brand or
business, they can also break one as well. It’s a slippery slope that
every brand manager and business owner simply must be prepared to
navigate with extreme care.
So how terrible could it be?
Nothing really dies
Always remember this: with social media,
nothing ever seems to die. Whatever goes on social media stays on
social media years down the line. Once a thread or conversation starts,
you’re going to be battling it or handling it forever. Even if you
manage to put a particular topic behind you, it can resurface at any
time.
Deaf ears
Social media engagement may seem more
like the sole responsibility of your marketing team, but it is important
for other departments to also be aware of what goes on in this space.
Today, many customers simply turn to a company’s Facebook page for
lodging their complaints and voicing their dissatisfaction. In addition,
they also leverage many online forums to vent and share their bad
experiences. Your customer service team needs to constantly go through
these sources for information about customers’ experience, and address
the issues, if any. Most importantly, your team should be trained to
handle customer complaints with humility and grace, no matter what the
complainant says. The slightest hint of irritation, or arrogance can
backfire.
Ignored messages
We live in an age and time when not
answering a direct message means “no” or “I’m not interested.” Although
this needs to change, it would, of course, take some time and you don’t
want your brand to be the ‘scape goat’. In recent times,, I’ve been
trying to respond to most tweets even if it means briefly explaining why
I’m not interested. In a few cases, posters reply with a different idea
or request. And, besides, there’s really no excuse to ignore people
anymore. Worthwhile social media manager applications like Sprout Social
make it easy to mark messages and track followers.
Abandoned website
While having an active social media
network is important, you cannot possibly ignore your website – the
online face of your business – in the bid to make the most of social
media. At the end of the day, social media is a marketing tool, but
unless what you are marketing (read website) is impressive, you can
forget about securing conversions. First impression says everything.
Selfish engagement
If your main mission on social media is
only to consume value, you might as well end up being consumed. In as
much as we’re all self-promoters at heart (some more than others), we
must learn to create a balance so as not to cut across of a selfish on
social media. When you only you’re your company news, personal info, and
career highlights, you are creating a stream that is not only a bit
dull but is downright narcissistic. The best posters are not posers. My
advice: Post and retweet helpful information, reply as much as you can,
and return the favour to your most loyal followers.
Unorganised posts
I have realised that a scheduled
approach to Twitter and Facebook updates works best. That’s why Apps
like Hootsuite allows you schedule posts to space them apart a bit. When
you post a quick succession of links, people feel inundated and the
content is lost in the rush. I’ve also noticed that, when there’s a
flurry of posts, there is often a long period of inactivity. We know
when someone posts several updates in a row that they’re too busy. That
seems to confuse followers, who like to see a steady stream of
informative info.
Grammar freaks
As long as we are human, we all are
susceptible to making some mistakes, once in a while. But there seems to
be a disproportionate number of armchair quarterbacks on Twitter,
Facebook, Tumblr, and LinkedIn than anywhere else who are only there to
amplify your wrongs. An individual can use abbreviations and butcher
spellings for the sake of word counts, but try it as a business, and you
immediately lose credibility.
Convoluted management
If you’re trying to manage social media
accounts, it can be a convoluted nightmare as far as structure,
management, and organisation are concerned. The larger your online
presence, the more problems you can have trying to keep your accounts
straight.
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