Social media is an integral part of your business branding. However, if you’ve been posting, tweeting and pinning for several months and you’re not seeing results it likely means you’re misusing social media.
An active social media presence is the cost of doing business these days, so don’t make these 4 costly mistakes.
4 Ways You Could Be Misusing Social Media
1. #TooManyHashtags
Hashtags work well when used correctly. Use hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. Google+ is trying to make hashtags happen, but it’s not catching on. Facebook failed to make hashtags happen and absolutely do not under any circumstances use hashtags on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not the place for hashtags and you will be ridiculed by colleagues for using them.
You do not need to create a hashtag for every word you use on Twitter or Instagram. Do your research and see what hashtags make sense. Hashtags work best on Twitter if you use one broad hashtag. No more than 5 hashtags should be used on Instagram.
2. Inconsistency
Make a schedule that aligns with your strategy. You want your followers to be consistently aware of your brand. If you don’t have a schedule set, you’re likely misusing social media. Software like Hootsuite make it easy for you to schedule regular content. You can also sprinkle additional content in throughout.
This doesn’t mean you should be scheduling all of your content and then forgetting about it …
3. You’re Unresponsive
…because the whole point of social media is to engage with your fans, followers and anyone interested in your business. If someone is unhappy, they are going to voice their opinion on social media and if you do not acknowledge the situation, other people are going to notice. The same thing goes if someone compliments your business on the outstanding customer service they received. Say thank you!
Ignoring your followers will turn people away and you definitely don’t want to make that mistake.
4. You Only Share Your Own Content
While it’s great to share your content, your social media presence shouldn’t be a long list of posts plugging your own content. The Internet is full of information your followers are interested in discovering, so share information from other companies as well. Do you receive a lot of referral business from other companies? Share the love and link to some of their blog posts!
If your social media presence isn’t what you want it to be, step back and evaluate. Are you misusing social media?