Social Media Networking

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You heard social media networking was the key to an effective marketing campaign in today’s digital world and jumped on the bandwagon. So, where are all those new customers and outstanding sales figures? Social networking, like everything else, has to be done correctly in order to be effective. Here are the most common mistakes companies make in social media, and how to take your suck to good luck.

Do Your Posts Sound Too Promotional?

Image via Flickr by Loozrboy

Are your posts and tweets blatant promotional content or something the readers see asvaluable? For example, “Check out our new products!” is only going to attract the few readers who are already hooked on your stuff. Instead, try something like, “5 Things You Can’t Do Without This Season.” This statement builds interest and excitement without being in-your-face advertisement. After all, one of the reasons social media is more effective than traditional advertising is because it offers something of value not just a shameless promotion, which is quite easy for consumers to ignore.

Are You Automating Streams of Content?

Image via Flickr by Barmala

Do you set your Facebook page, Twitter feed and other social networking accounts to spit out automated content all day every day? If so, you can fully expect readers to completely ignore your stuff and quickly opt out of receiving your spammy messages. That’s one of the 10 ways to suck on Twitter. Readers want substance, not fluff. They don’t care to hear drone messages, but they are interested in receiving up-to-date, meaningful information. For example, if you’re selling widgets, give them great information about widgets. What are the safest widgets on the market? What size widget is best for your wing ding? When is the best time to buy a widget? Articles like these give the customer information they want and need, which builds goodwill between your company and your customers.

Are You Engaging in One-Way Conversations?

Image via Flickr by cooper.gary

Some companies just spit out information at consumers with no input and commentary from the people who matter most. Effective social media networking doesn’t leave out the “networking” part – it’s a two-way conversation. When people use social media, they want to communicate back. This means having staff members who respond and reply to comments, answer messages and let consumers know there really are humans behind that logo. Furthermore, the most successful companies in social marketing encourage comments and questions. Opinion polls, open-ended questions and other ways to illicit input from customers helps build relationships, not just advertisements.

Once you build something of value to readers and open the portal to two-way communications, you’ll see an entirely different side of social media networking for marketing. Are all the comments from consumers going to be positive? Absolutely not. However, smart companies can weed out comments from the haters and get a lot of insight from the average consumer. Are people constantly complaining about a particular part of your product? Is price the biggest problem or quality? Even negative comments can trigger necessary changes in your company to offer a product consumers want to buy – and give them a message they want to spread to others.

See? You really don’t have to suck at social media networking. It just takes some planning and practice to get social media networking right. What are your thoughts?

Timothy Carter

Smash Hit Displays

Timothy Carter is the search & social media mind at Smash Hit DisplaysTrade Show Displays . When Tim isn't telling the world about the great work his company does, he's helping others with their social media marketing. In his free time he's teaching his wife and kids how to rock at disc golf and ping pong.