The Top 5 Social Media Don’ts for Startups
It seems as if everyone is using social media these days—from your grandmother to multi-national corporations. But the businesses that may be benefitting from social media the most are those who do not have the budget for traditional, outbound marketing: startups.
The startup community has embraced social media with open arms. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube and blogs have helped startups increase web traffic, connect with clients, learn about competitors and market their business on a small budget. So what’s not to love about this new marketing tactic?
Most startups use social media marketing very effectively—but others use techniques that make us cringe. Learn about the top 5 social media don’ts below and make sure you’re not using them when blasting out information on the Twittersphere, blogosphere, or whatever sphere you’re into:
- Blasting out info without a marketing plan
Many entrepreneurs believe that starting a social media campaign means developing a Facebook page, signing up on Twitter and flying by the seat of their pants. But in most situations, this is not the best way to approach social media marketing.
Take a step back. First, you need to create strategic plan for your social media operation. Answer questions like: Who is your target audience? How are you going to reach out to your followers? Who is going to operate the social media campaign? What are your social media goals? How will you measure the campaign’s success?
- Not knowing your social media audience
Just like researching your audience for a traditional marketing plan, you must also research your target audience when exploring the world of social media. Do some research on who you should connect with, who you want to speak to directly and who you think will be reading your posts. Find top influencers in your industry and be sure to connect with them early on in the game. Those who do not research their audience ahead of time may, in fact, be wasting time!
- Not observing social media etiquette
We all know about email etiquette—greet people properly, do not shorten words, use correct grammar, provide a signature at the bottom, etc., etc. But did you know that there is such thing as social media etiquette as well? We have provided some of the top tips for social media etiquette below. You’ll get a slap on your wrist if you don’t follow them—bad, startup!- Ask thought-provoking questions.
- Do not follow someone on Twitter, then unfollow them when they follow you.
- Be careful with the amount of exclamation points and smiley faces you use!!! J J Be professional.
- Do not be too advertise-y; people don’t always want to hear about how great you are.
- Promote other people as well as your own brand.
- Shorten your links by using a program like bit.ly. No one likes trailing links!
- 140 characters means 140 characters!
- Don’t spam people with automatic direct messages after they follow you. They followed you for a reason—and that reason is not so you can spam them a thank you note.
- Don’t spread yourself too thin; there’s a wide world of social media out there, use it wisely!
- Failing to measure
We know it’s difficult to measure the success of a conversation, but it’s not that difficult to measure the success of a social media campaign. In fact, there are many tools out there that can help you read your success rate. Be sure to take into account your total online community size, the number of mentions you’ve received, how many people have commented on your Facebook page, and all of the traffic referred to your business site from social media outlets. Use tools such as PageLever, Simply Measured and SocialMention to find these numbers. Facebook Insights is another great way to see how your Facebook page is progressing—and it’s conveniently built right in!
- Being spammy (and not knowing that timing is everything)
We’ve all seen it before: a small square picture of a hot girl on Twitter. She has 2 tweets, 5 followers and is following 4,593 people. This is a spam account, and nobody likes it! Be sure to rid your social media pages of all spam accounts. And don’t be spammy yourself! Don’t blast out the same Facebook post every week just to try to get your product circulating. Be unique and creative, and don’t post too often.
Keep in mind that when it comes to social media, timing is everything. Social media acts in real time, so you often have to act fast. Retweet posts you find interesting as soon as you see them, thank people for following you the same day that they do and blog about newsworthy information going on in your industry that week. Time it out correctly and you’ll find that your followship will quickly increase!