1. No plan or strategy
What do you want to achieve with your campaign? Lots of people know they should do something with social media, but the most successful marketers develop a plan and have a clear understanding of what they want to achieve.
2. Not knowing where your customers are talking about you
Twitter might be fun, but are you sure that’s where your audience is? Depending on the type of business, you may find your time is better spent on other social networks- perhaps even a much smaller but better targeted industry-specific one, or message boards. There’s more to social media than just Facebook and Twitter.
3. No goal measurement
Once you know what you want to achieve, you need to identify metrics to track the success of your efforts.
Just like other forms of marketing, you need to see a return on investment. Examples of goals you could measure include: Facebook ‘likes’ and ‘shares’, Twitter ‘retweets’ and YouTube comments.
4. Not understanding how to deal with criticism
Whether legitimate customer service gripes, or volcanic eruptions of vitriolic anger; criticism is inevitable and you need to know how to deal with it. You can’t stop criticism, but you can plan how to deal with it in a way that limits damage or even improves your reputation.
5. Do you talk with your audience, or at them?
Social media is a conversation. Dialogue. If you have a special offer, it’s OK to tell your audience about it, but for the most part- people don’t want to see a stream of adverts cluttering up their Facebook feed. Talk with your audience, be engaging, be relevant.