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All companies make mistakes. But a blooper seen by millions comes at a high price. What’s high? According to a recent study, social media mistakes can cost big corporations an average of $4.3 million. A famous example profiling Dell all started with a blog post from Jeff Jarvis, an influential blogger. Jarvis lashed out about his bad experience with Dell and Dell made the mistake of not responding promptly. This sparked more flame and the criticism circulated fast. Dell learned from the mistake and revamped their online customer service. The end result: Jarvis ended up writing an article for Business Week that expressed he was impressed with Dell’s eventual reaction.

Of course, no company is perfect with this form of marketing, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Blunders will occur. But you can avoid committing some of the big ones – especially if you know what to avoid.

1.     Making Half-Hearted Attempts at Social Media

You see this all the time. A business signs up for Facebook, Twitter and 411.ca. Then it uploads a lame picture and ZERO content. It screams blatantly that the business has simply jumped on the social media bandwagon but is clueless about what to do next.

The most important thing to do is to optimize your social profiles with as much rich, informative and engaging content as you can – they are excellent platforms to convey to the online world what your business is all about.

What does great content look like? It comes in the form of stories, transcends the company’s expertise and grabs your attention in formats such as interviews and lists. If you are a new business in a community, engage in discussions by listening – there will be plenty of time to jump in, but first soak in what “hooks” this community. You can write great content till the cows come home but if you drive it to the wrong crowd you will always be unsuccessful.

To further benefit from your online marketing tactics, offer your audience their choice of engagement. The audience you gain and capture on Twitter, for example, isn’t necessarily going to be the same group frequenting your Facebook page.

2.     Tools, What Tools?

You’ve completed an intense 12-week boot camp and your fitness instructor insists on measuring everyone in your group to show you your progress in numbers, give you a sense of what worked well and what didn’t and to fuel motivation to keep up the great work. Measuring the impact of your business’s social media activity is important for the same reasons. You’ve done your research, and have a strategy in place to guide your efforts. Is it working? There is a great variety of free easy-to-use tools available that can help you analyze what content is engaging and what content is going unnoticed. If you have a business account on 411.ca, we offer tools that allow you to track your stats and reviews. Tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook insights and Twitter measuring tools are all free and at your disposal. After a review of these statistics and insights … and with what your customers want, you can tweak your social media efforts to better align with your purpose and vision.

3.     Doing Business Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Everyone enjoys entertaining split personalities in books and movies, but when it comes to your business be consistent. Take the highly publicized case study of ex- New York Republican, Christopher Lee, as an example. Lee was asked to resign from his post after he sent shirtless pictures of himself to women online. He resigned within a matter of hours after Gawker released the photos to the masses. Talk about the importance of a consistent brand!

Your customers and prospects want to feel your brand across all of your businesses communication and practices. Solidifying a unified online personality adds to your credibility.

Social media platforms offer an excellent opportunity to reinforce your brand. Creating profiles that have a consistent look and feel across all social sites draws in prospects and you have a far higher chance of being remembered. Your choice of images, colours, and tone should be undivided across the board. It’s important to note that each online footprint is woven into the overall larger brand identity of your business. The same applies to your customer interactions and practices. You certainly don’t gush a sales pitch to a customer the moment you have met in person or on the phone, so don’t be pushy online in the form of self-promotional spam. View each individual you engage with online as a potential customer, but remember to build the relationship first. Only then can you apply the many benefits that direct marketing through social media has to offer.

Shyla

– Community Manager

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