Social Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2013

In our earlier post “SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS IN 2013” , we provided you some of the tips about the trends that should be followed in the upcoming year. This post is related to the same theme i.e. to help you understand the importance of social marketing and to do things right. In this post, we will be discussing about some of the most common social marketing mistakes and how you can avoid these mistakes.

It is a fact that even a very professional and a senior marketer sometimes can lose track of things and make the common mistakes, the important thing is to know how to avoid these mistakes. So, with further ado here is the list of mistakes we have compiled that should be avoided in the year 2013 from your social marketing strategy :

1 – NOT Following the plan:

On number of occasions, we make plans and then do not follow them. Although the start is very strong, but then comes along a distraction and we lose our focus and the plan is failed from there on. This is what social marketing experts say, when we discussed about it with them “It is very important to keep your focus when you start social marketing, as at first you are excited about the whole thing, but then comes a time where you think that you act a bit lazy and postpone the work for a later time, which results in loads of work and ultimately almost impossible to handle. And, from there, the real disaster strikes through for your social marketing efforts”. For avoiding such a disaster, make sure that you are following the plan and make a schedule that you would follow for supporting your social marketing strategy.

2 – NOT Monitoring Marketing Performance:

We all are aware of the phrase “You can only manage what you can measure”, it really reflects for marketing. When planning for your social marketing strategy, you need to identify the metrics and objectives with which you would be able to measure the success of your marketing efforts. Continuous monitoring is important to identify the campaigns that are not working as planned and also to decide which of them are to be replaced. Online media also provides you with the common metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions etc. that helps in easy measurement.

Considering the fact that some of the times it gets a little out of your hands to measure the success of your social marketing efforts. We (Cygnis Media) launhced FanCircuit, a product that helps you to keep track of all the important elements that should be considered in tracking and managing the social marketing campaigns.

3 – NOT Using New Media:

“Change is the only thing that is constant”, a universal truth. But, some marketers ignore this fact completely and do not consider the latest marketing trends while preparing the social marketing strategy for the next year. Marketers continue to use the traditional marketing methods either because they are unaware or they just do not want to use the new programs. It is very important for marketing professionals to learn about the new changes taking place in the industry and cope up with the technology and new methods. Social marketers need to be flexible and open to try out new campaigns.

4 – NOT Interacting with Customers:

Social media is all about interactions. A number of consumers use social media for customer service queries. Often such queries are ignored by brands, most probably due to the reason that social media is an open platform for everyone to see. However, resolving customer service issues through social media will help the brand gain confidence and also will earn respect among the customers. This means that responding to customer queries on social media would feel more personalized and real life to the consumers, and your followers would be reassured that your social media account is not automated.

5 – NOT Offering Private Space to Consumers:

Too much of anything is not good at all. Remember not to intrude in your consumer’s private space by posting too much on your page. Experts suggest that posting content on your page 4-5 times a day is perfect on different times. Doing so, ensures that everyone that follows your brand would be able to see your post and at the same time they would not feel over compensated by your posts. Be careful with posting stuff on your Facebook Page as it could either make or break your social media presence.

CONCLUSION:

There are always more mistakes that you can make, but our friendly advice is to avoid them for your own good. Our intention, by posting this blog, is to help you so that you are able to achieve the objectives and goals of your social marketing strategy for the year 2013 by avoiding the most common mistakes marketers can make. We welcome your opinions and we expect you to help us build up our list more comprehensive that can help other marketers make their social marketing strategy
a success.