Small business owners have a lot on their plate to deal with: developing and promoting products and services, finding and keeping clients, accounting matters, and so on. It is excusable then that every once in a while you make a mistake here and there. Nobody is perfect, and mistakes happen even in large companies with lots of checkpoints and validation procedures.
However, you should try to eliminate these annoying mistakes as much as possible, because they are hurting your business. Your clients know that they have a wide range of choices for similar products, so they will quickly lose their loyalty towards your business.
Among the most annoying mistakes you can make as a small business are those on the social media. Now, everyone considers everyone else to be an expert in social media, and businesses even more so. This is why the following 4 mistakes are deemed to be almost unforgivable and could lose you a lot of followers:
1. Promoting a Trending Hashtag in a Wrong Way
Many businesses try to take advantage of trending hashtags by including them in their post in order to get some piggyback traffic from the trend. However, you should be very careful when selecting which hashtag to promote. Either it may be a sensitive social, political, or religious topic, or it may have absolutely no connection with your business and people will notice your desperate grab at attention and likes.
This type of mistake is more common than you may think and even top companies were among the worst offenders in this respect. No matter how much you want to take advantage of the timing, always take the time to research what the hashtag is about and act appropriately.
2. Mistiming Your Posts
Many small business owners schedule their social media posts a few days or even a full week ahead of time. Sometimes, nothing eventful happens and your posts can be left to be posted automatically as you scheduled them. In other situations, significant events happen and you must step in, change the schedule and add an appropriate post for the occasion.
3. Failing to Engage With Your Followers
What is engagement? Engagement is the virtual version of a conversation when people talk to each other, answer each other’s questions and share interesting information between each other. When someone asks a question on your social media page, always give an answer. If you do not have the answer on the spot and need to do a little research, do not leave the person waiting: acknowledge the question and let the original poster know that you will come back with an answer a little later. It is simple courtesy and good manners – and they fully apply on the social media as they do in the real life.
4. Failing to Educate Your Followers
An educated customer is a smart customer who will fully appreciate the willingness of a business to look after their needs and solve their problems. Therefore, spend time educating your customers about your products and services. Go beyond the basic benefits they offer and show them creative ways in which your customers can save time and improve their lives. Share with them what inspired and motivated you to go into business, and the thought and work process behind your products and services.
After all, the social media is all about sharing, building relationships and going beyond a mere sales proposition. Be social, be courteous and engaging, and you will avoid these pitfalls in building and maintaining a great followers’ base on the social media.