Whether you love it or loathe it, you can’t get away from the fact that social media is a remarkable business tool. It’s cost-effective, reaches people relatively quickly and not to mention the vast potential reach (3.6 billion at our last count*).
With such a huge number of people using social media, people are often fooled into thinking it’s easy to become a ‘social media guru’, but in fact it’s quite a craft to do it well, particularly when it comes to B2B. There are a number of mistakes all too commonly made in the B2B world of social, and for your reading pleasure, we’ve bundled these together in one nice, consolidated list.
- Too much self-promotion – One of the biggest mistakes people make is using social media as purely a self-promotion tool. People, even your target audience, are unlikely to want to follow an account that purely sells and talks about themselves. Offer something to your followers worthwhile, whether it be news commentary, unique insights, or relatable content. Yes, when used correctly social media can act as a platform to elevate sales but it’s all about balance, and when executed correctly lead gen will naturally follow.
- Being too corporate – When it comes to success with social media it’s so important to make sure your posts have some personality about them. People like speaking to people so try to avoid too much corporate speak – remind your audience that there’s a person at the other end of the keyboard as if you’re not careful you’ll just become another faceless corporate brand. Bringing your feed to life with some character is far more likely to get a ‘like’ or a ‘follow’ – leave your followers wanting to hear more from your brand and remember that although your followers may be ITDMs, first and foremost they’re human!
- Failing to be reactive – We get it, managing a social media account takes time and effort – responding to comments, writing posts, engaging with content etc etc. It becomes all too easy to set up a series of scheduled posts using a social media management platform and forget about it until the next month. Yes, of course schedule some of your posts to make your life easier but don’t forget the here and now. If something newsworthy has occurred in the headlines or in your industry, make sure you post – jumping on trending topics is a great way to gain visibility for your brand.
- Social media overkill – Trust us, there are A LOT of social media networks. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat…the list goes on! But don’t feel being active on social means having to post on every single platform. Think carefully about your target audience, what platforms are they using? What content do they enjoy consuming on these platforms? This is where you should be focussing your efforts.
- Inconsistency – Like many things in the world of B2B, consistency is key. Only posting when you feel like posting will have very little impact, and engagement rates are likely to be poor. Social is an ongoing conversation that your brand has to contribute to regularly to see meaningful engagement. Stick with it and we promise you’ll reap the benefits.
- Failing to use multiple forms of content – Particularly when you’re new to social media it’s a common error to think that getting as much information to your audience, in one long paragraph of text is the best way. Keep your page interesting and active by mixing up the format of content you share. Have a think about videos, gifs, photography, illustrations. Don’t be too predictable ?!
Social media is forever evolving with new features and updates being introduced all the time. Not only is social media our bread and butter but we pride ourselves on being in the know about the latest features and functionality across all social media platforms, enabling us to deliver incredible social campaigns for our customers. If you’d like to have a chat about what we could do for your social media, please do get in touch as we’d love to hear from you!
