Social media marketing is used by almost all businesses in the digitalized world today. We are
living in an age where television is losing its charm compared to the use of social media. But
accessing the social media channels for our personal and professional use is quite different.
Certain techniques have to be applied and a lot of things to consider while using it for business
purposes, especially in the realm of acute competition in the market.
Social media helps you communicate with your users directly and most conveniently. It helps
you get a deeper insight into your customers’ concerns, reviews about your business and a lot
more.
In this article, I have enlisted a few do’s and don’ts of the social media marketing that you shall
keep on your checklist while determining your social media marketing strategy.
Do’s of Social Media Marketing
1. Do Analyze the Best Times to Post
Your audience may not be available to view your post at certain times. Several pieces of research
have been made that show different peak times for different industry sectors. You should analyze
when your audience is mostly available and should post at those times. There are various tools
available that you can use to analyze your audience’s behavior, for example, Google Analytics,
Brandwatch, Hootsuite, etc.
2. Do Use Various Types of Posts
If you choose to post only one kind of media, for example if you only post text content, your
audience may find it boring after a few posts. So, you must use different kinds of media like
infographics, images, videos, etc. Posting videos and infographics describing your products, how
to use them, etc are found helpful by the customers. They also increase your potential leads
thereby increasing your customer base.
3. Do Offer Solutions
When you engage with your customers, you analyze their queries and problems. Sharing useful
content that could answer their questions and help them solve their problems is a great way to
gain customer loyalty through social media platforms. When you offer solutions through your
social media posts, you get positive reviews from your existing customers which help you get
more audiences and generate leads.
4. Do Make It Personal
You should post your content in a way that could bring somewhat personal engagement of the
users. This can be done by aligning your voice tone with that of the users, analyze and post
according to your brand's mission in a way that could match your customers’ needs.
You may also use your social accounts to help your audience know your team. For example, you
can share an employee's extraordinary performance through an Instagram video. These kinds of
activities would help your customers develop a sense of personal touch with your team.
5. Do Complete Your Social Media Profiles
You should make sure that all the required information about your business is complete and up to
date on all your social media networks. Incomplete information looks less professional and may
not leave that good impression as a complete profile will do. You must take some time to
thoughtfully complete your profiles and also make sure that all the information present out there
is true and genuine.
6. Do Separate Business & Personal Accounts
You must separate your personal and business accounts on social media. Your business accounts
such as a Facebook business page should not contain any post related to your personal
experience. You should be consistent with the type of posts and information you share on each
network. These should be related to your business somehow. Posting content that is not related to
your business might irritate your customers and you may lose them on your social networks.
7. Do Post Regularly
You should post useful content regularly on all your social media networks. If you post after a
long period, you may not remain high on your customers' minds and your competitors may take
over. Sharing posts regularly would enable you to engage with your customers and satisfy their
requirements regularly and they would not move to your rivals in the market.
Don’ts of Social Media Marketing
1. Don’t Ignore Any of Your Social Accounts
If you have created multiple social accounts on multiple platforms, you should remain active on
all of those. If your customer tries to communicate with you through your social channel and you
are inactive on that account, your customer may feel abandoned and you might look reluctant to
him which is definitely not good for your online reputation. You may lose such customers from
your channel as well as from your other media too.
2. Don’t Ignore Customer's Comments or Questions
The basic reason behind creating any social media profile for business purposes is to engage with
customers, know their questions and reviews and offer solutions to maintain a satisfied pool of
customers. If you ignore comments or questions by the audience, you would fail to fulfill the
primary purpose of your social media profiles thereby putting all your efforts into vain. You do
not need to answer each question or comment you receive but some questions and reviews need
to be answered. For example, responding to a negative review positively along with a solution
may turn your dissatisfied customer into a satisfied one.
3. Don’t Forget to Include Links
The benefits of sharing content on social media is two-fold. One is, of course, to engage with
customers and the other is to bring more traffic to your website through social media. You
should always include links to your blogs, landing pages, contact us pages, sales page or
anything where you would like to drive your audience to. This would help you convert potential
leads into customers.
4. Don’t Use Hashtags in Excess
Hashtags connect your post to other posts on similar topics on social media. It makes the process
of content search easy. If they are used strategically, they will increase your online visibility.
But, if you use them in excess, it would make your content look spammy and the effectiveness of
your post is reduced
5. Don’t Reshare the Same Post Again and Again
There are several posts which are informative and are useful for the audience and you like to
reshare them. But, sharing the same post over and over again would leave your impression to be
a lazy fellow. These posts may not attract the viewers anymore. If you still want to reshare such
posts, you must try to be creative enough and edit it to the extent that it could grab the attention
and interest of your audience.
6. Don’t Overuse Automated Messages
When a customer asks you something, you should not rely on automated messages. Though
sometimes it is ok to help customers with bot answers, try not to overuse this feature. If you use
a lot of automated messages, your audience will fail to connect with you, they may also not be
satisfied with the answers they get which is not so good for you.
7. Don’t Device Same Strategy for All Platforms
The audience you deal with on different social media platforms is different. There needs and
behavior is not similar. So, your social media marketing strategy should also not be the same for
multiple platforms. For example, your LinkedIn audience is more professional and likes to read
long-form articles whereas your Facebook audience usually likes shorter posts.
