Don’t Dare To Make These Seven Social Media Mistakes
This is a guest post from Sandipan Mukherjee. It is part of The 2nd annual “Bad Ass” SEO Guest Blogging Contest.
Social media has become a necessary part of any kind of online marketing efforts. While there are many success stories of people using social media for personal and business reasons, there are also plenty of people who may feel their efforts are not paying off.
So are you feeling the same? Have you taken the time to create great content, but feel like you’re not getting the recognition you deserve? Here are some of the most common mistakes you must avoid when targeting social media for your traffic.
NOT ENGAGING WITH FOLLOWERS
Do you have conversations with your followers? Do you reply when they comment on your Facebook page or @reply to you on Twitter? If you don’t, then you’re missing out on a golden opportunity to build goodwill. The best professional and corporate social media users engage with their followers. They answer questions from their followers. They ask questions to their fans. Yes, it takes more time to have a two-way exchange online, but it also creates much bigger rewards. Take the time to reply to your followers and let them know you’re listening.
USING SAME STRATEGY
Facebook is not MySpace. Twitter is not LinkedIn. And they’re all different from Google+. Every social networking site is different and you need to create a different strategy for each site you decide to engage in. Trying to run a one-size-fits-all approach will limit your ability to be successful anywhere.
HAVE NO SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN
Research and planning is just as important on Social Media websites as it is in any other form of marketing and advertising. Every community is different and won’t respond in the same manner. Every successful campaign needs to have a set of goals. You should always do some research if you need to achieve these goals. Ask yourself what do you want to achieve with your social media content? Are you able to identify what type of impact you want to have?
IGNORE CRITICISM
It is inevitable that you will get negative comments as well as positive ones. Do not make the mistake of ignoring or dismissing your visitor’s criticisms. Sure, sometimes it’s frustrating to read negative feedback about your site – but criticism can also be beneficial. Obviously, not all things can be changed, or need to be changed, but try to respond politely to any criticism. There is no way to please everyone, but be diplomatic. Nothing damages your brand and website more than ignoring criticism or fighting fire with fire.
MISLEADING IMAGES, HEADLINES AND TAGS
Coming up with a great headline and intro are important for written content, but make sure your headline isn’t misleading. If your headline has no relation to your content then your visitors won’t stick around for very long. Similarly, don’t use misleading tags or images. You might get some initial clicks, but most people won’t ever come back to your site if it appears that you deliberately tried to deceive them.
TARGET ONLY ONE SOCIAL NETWORK
With so many social networks covering almost every available niche, why are you just targeting one? Most successful websites that target social media traffic will use different social networks.
IRRELEVANT SPAM
One of the worse things you can do is to send out your content to completely the wrong people. Most social networks allow you to have friends and thus you can share links with them. Use the search bar to find people who have an interest in your topic. Sending every piece of your content with everyone on your friends list is a definite way to have your content voted down in the short run, and in the longer term, you’ll be labelled as a spammer. What you should do is to get to know who you have added as friends and find out what they are interested in. This way, you will be able to share relevant links and you will increase the chances of others voting your story up.
Hope this post will help you avoid the major mistakes you can make when targeting social media for your traffic. Feel free to add comments if I missed out some points.
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Sandipan Mukherjee
Sandipan Mukherjee is the founder and CEO of Squarex Technologies. Squarex Technologies is a Web and Software Development Company.
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28 Comments
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Cool Post Thanks for sharing …I love the article..the way you write
Sai krishna recently posted..Aakash Ubislate 7 Tablet- A Revolutionary Tablet Launched by Indian Govt. for 35$
I am glad you liked the article.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..WordPress – The Best Blogging Platform
I seldom get comment on Facebook or Twitter, sometime absolutely no comment at all, but of there is I always reply. Nowadays I’m using Google+ more then Facebook and Twitter because, it’s new, I can start or plan about which type of people I should add which bring me quite a few conversation going in the circles.
Wong Chendong aka The Bad Blogger recently posted..7 Awesome Female Bloggers You Need to Know!
Sending every piece of your content with everyone on your friends list is a definite way to have your content voted down in the short run.
Google+ Circle is a great feature. You can create Circles based on a particular topic, add people who are interested in that topic and share relevant links to the people in that circle.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..WordPress – The Best Blogging Platform
Right on, use social media wisely. Different sites, different approach but always keep in mind that your actions will reflect to your products nor services.
Elin recently posted..Nya regler för tandblekning i Europa
I completely agree with you Elin.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..WordPress – The Best Blogging Platform
Thanks! I learned something in your post! I sometimes produced spam message to many people on order to have a great possibilities to get traffic but I learn that this can cause different result if I continue to do it.
Christian Esperar recently posted..5 Steps to Boosting Small Business SEO
I am glad you learned something from my article.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..WordPress – The Best Blogging Platform
Google also considers social media as an important factor in determining ranks. Thanks for the post Sandipan.
Naser recently posted..Nokia X3-02: Price In India, Touch and Type, 5MP Camera, HSDPA
I agree with you Naser.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..Paypal India Increases Receiving Limits to $3000 Per Transaction
My twitter username got wrong, its btfb1, please delete this comment after changing
Naser recently posted..Nokia X3-02: Price In India, Touch and Type, 5MP Camera, HSDPA
Now a days social media are the main source of marketing. After the launch of Google+, Social media plays a vital role. Thanks for sharing valuable tips
Ahsan recently posted..New Social Network – Cafeyard
You are welcome Ahsan.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..Paypal India Increases Receiving Limits to $3000 Per Transaction
Hi Sandipan,
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I’m a huge fan of Twitter and I’m starting to engage more on Google + these days too. Although I use Facebook, it’s not my favorite platform. I find that you can engage with people just by saying Hi and asking how their day is going. It doesn’t always have to be used as a promotion tool. It’s much more fun when you can behave naturally.
Ileane recently posted..8 Ways to Take Your Relationships Beyond Twitter
I agree with you Ileane…and thanks for the commenting.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..Paypal India Increases Receiving Limits to $3000 Per Transaction
Although I agree that you should focus on few social networks it is important to make sure it doesn’t become a burden. I think you can have success with few social networks as well, as long as you build some effort to build the relationships.
Nishadha recently posted..Problem with Flash Websites and How to Fix Them
Well said Nishadha….Thanks for the comment.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..WordPress – The Best Blogging Platform
“…MISLEADING IMAGES, HEADLINES AND TAGS…” That is one of the worst things you can do. I have un-followed about a dozen people because of that. I find it Offensive and very … I dont knwo how to put this. It’s like they are misusing your trust.
Satrap recently posted..53 Ways To Make Money Online
Thanks Satrap for sharing your views.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..Paypal India Increases Receiving Limits to $3000 Per Transaction
I liked that point “USING SAME STRATEGY”. You should have different strategy for different site.
Thanks Asmita for sharing your views.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..Paypal India Increases Receiving Limits to $3000 Per Transaction
I liked the tip about not ignoring criticism, I think online many simply do their thing regardless of, and sometimes for the purpose of, criticism. You’re really talking to REAL people, aren’t you? Listen to them, sometimes.
Thanks for your views Nick.
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Sandipan Mukherjee recently posted..WordPress – The Best Blogging Platform
It was very helpful for me ….I knew what mistakes i use to make while targeting social media for traffic on my blog.
yup. it sure did.
Why does it seem that when people are online that they tend to forget common sense? It is true that people will oftne put out a comment, hoping that they will get a backlink. The question is why? Simple, most people forget that they are trying to engage readers. There is a “courting” that people need to go through before they become avid readers of a blog, or evangelists of a product.
When they embrace this truism, the will start seeing the traffic that they are ultimately seeking.
I think your last tip should come first Sandipan.
You are wasting your time with social media if your traffic isn’t targeted and not getting what it is hungry for (or not hungry for anything that’ll make you any money).
There are some meta principles in that last sentence (and in the last tip in your post) that apply no matter what type of marketing you’re doing and what medium you’re doing it through. You can’t defy them any better than you can defy gravity!
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