Social Media Pitfalls – And How to Avoid Them!

By Inspiring Interns

Everyone understands that social media is extremely professionally important – both for well established, huge corporations and small business startups. It’s one of the best places to advertise, to find potential customers and to make oneself known in the business world. And yet, because it’s such a new sphere, there is still huge potential for mistakes to be made.

Here is a list of some of the most common corporate social media fails – and how to avoid them!

Being impersonal

Many businesses think they can skip the hard work of social media by using bots to do the hard work for them. But automated messages simply don’t have the same impact as a genuine message from a human – and it can be argued that they’re actually worse than nothing at all. For example, the automated tweets thanking other accounts for retweets can be perceived as impersonal or even lazy.

If you don’t have the time or energy to do the job right, perhaps it’s better not to do it at all. With social media, there are unfortunately no shortcuts.

Getting down with the kids

Picking the right tone for social media can be tricky, but there’s nothing worse than seeming try-hard or patronising. Be careful with use of slang, and make sure you fully understand memes or jokes before pressing send. You want to strike the balance between professional and personal here.

Being annoying

While it’s certainly important to remain active on social media, clogging up everyone’s feed with hundreds of repeat posts a day is a surefire way to get yourself unfollowed.

Aim for consistent but steady posts to remain in the consciousness without seeming desperate or needy.

Only using it when you want something

If your account is solely about recruitment, people who aren’t looking for a job will have no reason to follow you. Try to keep it varied and interesting, and make it a fun and useful account to be following.

Sticking with only one strategy

A good social media manager will experiment with lots of different methods to find out what works best for the company. Trying lots of things to see what sticks is certainly more efficient than sticking with one strategy that has yielded only mediocre results. The good thing about the fast-paced world of the internet is the ease with which new strategies can be employed and then ended. Take advantage of this.

Using the wrong platforms

LinkedIn is commonly seen by businesses as the key social media platform they need to be focusing on. But it’s actually both the least commonly checked social media platform, and the most expensive. People check their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram multiple times a day, but typically only look at LinkedIn when they need to. If it is visibility and reach you’re after, you can’t just focus on LinkedIn.

Ignoring it completely

Because social media is fairly new, many companies think they either don’t need to use it, or can manage with a minimal and ill-thought-through campaign. This is simply not the case.

Firstly, there must be a budget for social media in order for it to yield results. Secondly, the best way to utilize it is to employ a dedicated and skilled social media manager, whose primary task is a far-reaching and successful strategy. Social media in business is to be ignored at your peril!

 

Annie Walton Doyle writes for Inspiring Interns, which helps career starters find the perfect job, in everything from sales jobs to marketing internships. To browse their graduate jobs London listings, visit their website.

 

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