When used correctly, sites such as Twitter and Facebook can be a powerful tool for creating customer engagement, building brand recognition, and building your list of leads,   However;  these social media sites can also be a colossal waste of a business owner’s time and effort without a strategy in place to convert “likes” and follows into actual business revenue.

Here are 6 common mistakes that business owners make in the social media world and how you can remedy them.

1)            Not posting engaging material regularly – views are the name of the game in the social media world, as is getting your potential customers to interact with you.  It goes beyond just making sure you post regularly enough that your potential clients remember you. Status updates and tweets should be interesting enough that your targeted traffic feels a desire to comment or reply.   Posting riveting quotes, statistics about your business or actually asking questions for your customers to respond to will make you stand out from the rest.   These statuses should be posted on a regularly scheduled basis so potential customers know that you are actively seeking their business.

2)            Not converting followers and likes into paying customers –  You can follow anyone and everyone on twitter, but if you’re not engaging with your customers and following up with them, you’re not going to close those deals and convert those leads into paying customers.   Studies show that only 12% of people who see products advertised on social media actually go out and buy the product or service they see advertised.   This is why it’s important to have a strategy in place to follow up with those leads.   Let an internet marketing company like Mr. Pipeline take care of the legwork (posting interesting, relevant material), then have your sales team follow up with the folks who respond and interact to your social media material.   That person that “likes” your statuses and comments on your material?  They want you to reach out to them how you stand above the rest in customer service.

3)            Focusing on quantity of “likes” and followers rather than quantity – Just as you want the material you post to be relevant, you want those who “like” and follow you to be relevant as well.   Do you sell a health and fitness product? You’re more apt to get quality leads by following on those in the field – personal trainers, nutritionists, athletes and the like than you are by simply following every local business in your town.  500 personal training leads will likely give you more conversions than 5000 donut shops.

4)            Spamming – The opposite of not posting engaging material regularly is spamming your audience with tons of sales posts.   Just like most Facebook users don’t want to scroll through their feed and look at 45 pictures of your cat every day, no one wants to log onto Facebook and see 10 status updates from you trying to sell your product or service.   Spamming will lead to people hitting the “unlike” or “unfollow” button.   You want to sell your business by being unique and engaging.   Once people like you, that’s when it’s time to jump in and make the sale.   Use social media as a means to build rapport first.  (Although you can certainly post any sales or specials you have going on, don’t make sales be all you post.)

5)            Posting the same exact messages on every social media outlet –  LinkedIn and Facebook are two totally different social media channels, as are YouTube and Tumblr.   When you’re coming up with your strategy, remember that some material may be appropriate for one place but not another.   People may want to see your sense of humor shine through on twitter, but you may not want to use that same cartoonish post with your professional leads on LinkedIn.

6)            Not having any strategy at all – Just as posting the same message across all social media mediums is a mistake, not having any strategy is the fast way to failure.  If you simply create social media accounts and aimlessly meander around them with no game plan, you’re not going to see results. Working with a reputable internet marketing company such as Mr. Pipeline to come up with a strategy for targeting your audience and executing that strategy can help you to ensure social media marketing success.   An internet marketing company can handle coming up with the appropriate material and amount of material (with your suggestions) for each channel you choose to have us utilize to help build your business.