Businesses large and small today are engaging with clients like never before across multiple social media sites, however increasingly many businesses fail to take advantage of this growing media to transform “likes” into sales or engagement with the brands. Incorporating social media in their marketing strategies is amounting to a lost opportunity to connect with droves of potential customers and strengthen bonds with existing customers.
To maximize the success of social media businesses need to adopt to social marketing, today’s marketers need to become adept at integrating social into their existing marketing programs and strategies with clear goals and bench marks.
But businesses still need to be careful about how they are using social media so that they don’t throw away valuable resources. There are many mistakes businesses in Uganda and the world at large are making and here 5 of the top:
1. Not being social and expecting a sale:
As you know social is about interactions and in this case interactions with customers, potential or just fans. As most businesses are about growing sales you however need to develop personality and one type to avoid is that of an aggressive salesperson. Social media is supposed to be social. It can’t be a one-way street. Start conversations. From there, the only thing you have to sell customers on is that you’re going to include them in the conversation. Being the aggressive sales man will just turn off the crowd. Stop talking only and listen!
2. Using the wrong staff because they are tech savvy:
Many business in the rush to adopt to social media immediately put there tech savvy staff as the administrators of social media as a way of saving costs. However businesses need to put it in the hands of marketing or communications professionals. They will have the better understanding of your audience, objectives and the consequences of questionable posts.
3. Non responsive to complaints or controversy:
In business mistakes always happen and out of the many happy customers you have there as many unhappy customers. Step up and own your mistakes that have been made and address as many if not all of them brought up in a transparent fashion. Customers understand that things can go wrong and appreciate most of all when businesses are ready to learn from their mistakes and address them directly with their followers. Ignoring complaints shows you’re just going to do your own thing and customers can go hang for all you care.
4. Lack of incentives:
Why should customers “like” or return to your page? You don’t have to give away freebies or discounts as most people want, but you do need to make them feel like they are getting something out of it, such as: exciting products coming up, quick responses to questions, Info to help improve their lives/jobs and entertaining posts.
5. Using only one person to post:
When establishing a strong social media presence it takes a lot of time and effort that more than one person can handle. That’s why it helps to develop a social media content team or support team. Imagine the individual is out of the office or has left the office, getting a substitute who understands the audience and what and when to post is always difficult. Most social media savvy companies have a number of individuals who take part in posts and discussions depending on the topic. You need to make your team understand the goal of using social media and have participation. Ask the sales reps, heads of department or even your CEO to endorse or be part of the discussion. The worst case is when you have staffs of a company who don’t follow the company on social media.
In conclusion make sure you are consistent in your posts and are not just posting text because you need to make your page busy. Focus on what is being talked about and how best you want to relay your information. Also choose the right platform for individual posts and not just broadcasting the same message across your different social platforms. Remember different platforms have different audiences and habits so address the right posts to the right audiences.
Avoiding these mistakes will keep your business on top of your social media game and in return you will start to realise “likes” can result in sales.
