5 Small Social Media Mistakes Which Can De-value Your Brand

By Laurie Wood

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With a well-executed marketed strategy, social media offers an enormous opportunity for brand exposure. However, when you’re focusing on the big campaigns it can be really easy to get carried away and become vulnerable to smaller mistakes. Small mistakes reflect negatively on your brand’s organisation skills which could lead to a tarnished reputation. Here are 5 small mistakes to keep in mind when creating and implementing campaigns.

UNINTENTIONAL TYPOS

Psosliby teh esaeist mtsikae to msis cioncidnerg our birans are tiraned to raed mssielpeld wrods. You understood that, right? Here’s a link if you wanted to know the science behind it (source). But back to the point in hand, I bet each and everyone one of you has read back through a blog or article you’ve written and could kick yourself from a typo or grammatical error you’ve never noticed before, or perhaps was only made aware when a friend or colleague pointed it out. Well firstly, we’re all human and it’s not our fault that our brains are super intelligent but secondly, that’s more of a reason why we should take another look at what we’ve written or ask someone to check before publishing. Luckily, Facebook and Instagram gives you the option to edit your post, but Twitter is a one click wonder, so be careful, a small typo or grammatical error has a much greater impact on the user’s impression of your brand.

If you’re a regular typo victim then install the free Chrome extension Grammarly which underlines all of your typos and grammatical errors. If a typo does get published even after installing Grammarly, then there is simply no hope for you.

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Check out this error from HubSpot:
“Are your press releases been keeping up?”
Good job, HubSpot.

TOO MANY HASHTAGS

#I #hate #when #people #hashtag #every #single #word. Too many hashtags can be bad practice as it doesn’t guarantee your photo/post will appear higher up in the results. The golden rule with using hashtags is focusing on quality over quantity. Here are a few reasons why too many hashtags can be a bad thing:

  • It distracts from the post/key message
  • It can make your post look like spam
  • It looks messy
  • Uses up a lot of your characters (Twitter)
  • Makes you look like an amateur social media poster (not understanding the concept)

Every hashtag needs to carry meaning and add value to your post. It’s about categorising your content so your post is tailored to a target demographic, meaning more chance of a higher visibility and engagement rate. Healthcare Connect utilises hashtags focused around the industry it’s promoting, health and social care. While TEKsystems careers is a good example of a branded hashtag by using #tekcareers on every post. Oh, and one more thing, if you do go down the branded hashtag route, make sure you double check it prior to implementing, know-one want’s another #susanalbumparty fiasco.

STEALING CONTENT WITHOUT GIVING CREDIT

Downloading images, music, films and sharing/posting them on your domain without permission can lead to a serious legal battle due to copyright infringement and that would lead to a major PR disaster.
Although relevant on any platform, Instagram in particular often falls victim to individuals uploading content without giving credit to the original poster. Even if the content is set to public view, it doesn’t take a second to send that user a message asking if it’s cool you re-post.

SPENDING PRECIOUS MONEY WITHOUT A PLAN

It’s no good splashing the cash if you have no idea what your goal is or don’t receive decent ROI. SMART goals would be useful here:

  • Specific: Create a well-defined goal for your campaign. Think about whether your aim is for an increase of engagement, conversions or brand awareness.
  • Measurable: Choose your KPI and keep tracking this to collect a result.
  • Achievable: Collaborate what resources you can obtain to help make this campaign a success.
  • Realistic: Literally, set a realistic goal. A campaign promoting sunglasses in November isn’t realistic because of the weather.
  • Time keeping: Set yourself a time-limit. There always needs to be an end in sight.

Stick with SMART and there should be no issue. Other than the fact you need to be able to handle your money and budget wisely.

TOO MUCH SELF PROMOTION

When delivering content on social media it’s recommended you apply the 80/20 rule. Even though there is no set formula to guarantee a successful campaign, many professionals use this rule to keep their content structured and entertaining for their audiences. 80% of your content is tailored to the interests of your audience. It’s designed to promote user engagement and conversation. The other 20% is self-promotional work which includes direct call-to-actions. Before questioning why a user would bother to follow your page if they didn’t want to see just self-promotion you need to remember, many users are on social media for one thing, and that’s to be social and not subjects to a sales pitch. Stick with this rule and you’ll retain a strong following over time.

Want to know more on how you can utilise social media as a seller tool? Follow me here for daily updates: LauriewoodUK

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