Most marketers are aware by now of the importance of having a marketing strategy that includes social media platforms. A good social media post can get a lot of shares, likes, bookmarks, and generate a lot of traffic from other social media platforms as well. Facebook has the most shares of subscribers when compared to other platforms, and so it has attracted lists of businesses looking to connect with their audience. While marker testing focus on how to get more shares, comments or likes through Facebook like counter, it’s also important to know the faux pas when promoting your business online. Making these mistakes listed below could significantly set you back in your marketing efforts.
Creating a Facebook Profile Instead Of a Page
This is probably one of the biggest no no’s for businesses. To put it simply, people create profiles while businesses create pages. A profile for a start-up company looks the same and has the same features as that of a 10 year old, and this is no way to make a business stand out. Having a page gives your business certain privileges. Aside from looking different from other typical Facebook profiles, pages have tabs and as an owner you can control a lot of other things on your page and your business by say using analytics and requesting for reports on your Facebook activity. This will help gain a better understanding of your audience and how to grow your business. Custom tabs that are a feature of pages provide businesses with great tools to boost their online content such as creating a mailing list, having discussion forums, subscribing to a website and so many more. Facebook pages are very ideal, when it comes to making calls to action to your readers as they are more likely to take your business page more seriously and share it with their friends as opposed to a personal profile account.
Posting Too Much or Too Little
It is important to post regular content in order to keep your audience engaged, however it is just as important to maintain a balance when it comes to how much and how often you post. If you post rarely, you may leave your audience wondering whether you are still in business and when you do finally post some may not take you seriously. On the other hand, posting too frequently can be perceived as annoying and desperate by your readers. Either way you will end up looking unprofessional. With the help of Facebook insights, you can gain some helpful data regarding your audience such as when they are most active on social media. Is it during the weekday or weekend? It is in the morning or in the afternoon? You can then use this information to put out your post in a timely manner that is likely to garner more views. Bottom-line, your posting schedule has a great bearing on the success of your online campaigns.
Being Personal and Negative
In keeping with the first point, you shouldn’t treat your Facebook page as a personal profile account. This means you shouldn’t post personal matters on your business page, this will not fair well for you or your business, and will ultimately make you look very unprofessional. Talking of taking things too personal, you should keep a level head in the light of negative comments being left on your Facebook page by readers. If a customer has a complaint and airs it in a rude or negative manner, it’s not advisable to respond in the same tone. Even if the customer is wrong, try and be calm as other potential customers could be paying attention to your exchange. Alternatively, you could contact the customer privately and work on resolving the issue separate from the page.
Failing To Update Your Information
Featuring outdated or incorrect information regarding your business can be heavily detrimental. Customers might not be able to reach you to make purchases or queries regarding your products and services, and some might end up assuming that you are closed for business indefinitely. Ensure you update your page information section or contacts promptly, should there be any changes. In addition, you can post a reminder on the page on the same.
Failing To Make Use of Facebook Ad Tools
Facebook is a great platform for reaching your consumers with ads and you don’t have to struggle that much either. There are great Facebook analytics tools at your disposal to help you determine key things such as your target demographic, your audience geographical location, their sex, age, interests and so forth. Understanding your audience helps you allocate your resources into creating a targeted ad. Facebook tools can also help assess the success of your campaigns and provide you with ways to improve your marketing strategies.
