21 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

We have all made mistakes when it comes to social media; but the best way to avoid them in the future is to draw attention to them.

Following are 21 common social media mistakes I see business owners making all the time, along with how to avoid them!

1. Spreading yourself too thin: Just because a social network exists doesn’t mean you need to be part of it! It is better to focus on a few networks where you know your target market is actively looking to engage with you than to try to do it all and failing because you are spread too thin.

2. Posting what you want (not what your audience wants): Instead of posting about whatever’s on YOUR mind, focus on the needs and pain points of your audience. 

3. Not being consistent across platforms: Your design, values and voice should be consistent across all platforms to present a recognizable face on social media. 

4. Not engaging: This is a big one! Too many businesses are still too focused on posting, and not focused enough on responding, interacting and engaging their audience. 

5. Not using images: Images on social media account for 93% of the most engaging posts. Not using images is a HUGE opportunity lost!  

Image courtesy of Social Bakers

 6. Not using hashtags: Hashtags are one of the best ways to attract new followers on social media. 

You can use them to find new conversations to take part in or to attract potential clients or customers who would otherwise never find your content. For more on this, see my post How to Use Hashtags to Find Prospective Clients. 

7. Posting sporadically: Using social media for business is all about building trust, and only posting when you want something (traffic, sales, attention) is a great way to break this trust!

8. Not having a social media strategy:  Having a plan in place allows you to tie your social media efforts in with your business goals, and ensures you are using social media most effectively.

9. Not understanding that social media posts function as headlines: If you want your followers to take a specific action, understand which headlines work best on social media.

10. Not measuring your social media efforts: If you don’t understand what’s working and what’s not, you could be wasting your valuable time AND missing out on tons of opportunities!

11. Not thinking strategically about when to post: The best way to figure out optimal posting times is to do some testing and then look at your own analytics; and a great place to start your testing is by looking at the research!

Image courtesy of Dan Zarrella

12. Posting too much: How much is ‘too much’ will vary from business to business and industry to industry. Do some sleuthing to figure out how often YOUR audience wants to hear from you.

13. Being inappropriate: I often talk about the importance of showing your human side on social media. This DOESN’T mean, however, airing your dirty laundry or speaking negatively of others!

14. Not networking: Yes, social media is a platform for your business. But don’t spend all your time engaging on your own page or with your own content! Reach out to others by @ mentioning them, tagging them and responding to their blog and social media content.

15. Not posting a variety of content: Keep it interesting by changing things up – share links to your content, ask questions, shared curated content, post a fun image or video…variety is the spice of life (even on social media!).

16. Not using social media tools: Not using tools can mean a whole lot of wasted time. For some of my favorite tools, see my post 9 Social Media Tools to Save You Tons of Time.

17. Not being active where your customers are: Do you know where your customers hang out online? Do you know where they want to connect with you? Searching for your keywords on various social networking sites is one way to figure out the best place to invest your time.

18. Not sharing other people’s content: You don’t have a monopoly on awesome content…be sure to spread the love by retweeting or sharing other people’s awesome content too.

19. Not having a consistent voice: I’m not just talking cross-platform here. For instance, how do you want to come across on Facebook? Do you want to be friendly and casual, or more professional and reserved?

20. Too much selling, not enough engaging: Long term success will mean building relationships over time; constantly focusing on selling may drive a few sales in the short term, but will alienate you from your audience in the long term.

21. Focusing on quantity rather than quality: This can apply to the quantity of your fans or followers, or to how much content you create. Far better to have a smaller but targeted following, and to produce smaller quantities of high-quality, highly relevant content.

 Have you fallen into any of the traps above? Which mistake(s) are you determined to avoid in the future? Share below!

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13 Ways To Find Good Twitter Usernames When Your First Choice Is Taken

One of the first things you do when registering a Twitter account is choose a username.

Your username becomes your Twitter handle — the word with the @ in front of it.

But with millions of users, there’s a good chance the name you want is taken. Which can be pretty annoying!

So what can you do?

Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for getting that particular name. But all is not lost!

Below are 13 suggestions for finding the perfect Twitter handle even if your first choice is taken.

>> Click to Tweet << 

13 Ways to Find Good Twitter Usernames When Your 1st Choice is Taken

1. Just Add “The”

It’s easy to add ‘”The” to any Twitter username.

>> Click to Tweet

2. Use “This is” or “I am”

These fit nicely with most names.

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3. Begin With “We are”

This works for companies & groups.

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4. Use Your Name & Industry

Using your name & industry in your handle can help optimize your Twitter account for the search engines.

>> Click to Tweet

5. Use Initials

Add an initial to your name if someone already has your favorite moniker.

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6. Businesses Can Use “HQ”

The universal symbol for headquarters works great & it’s not very long. 

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7. “Try”, “Use”, “Get”, “Join”

These words can juice up a Twitter handle for a service-oriented business or app.

>> Click to Tweet

8. App Companies Use “App”

App companies can use the word “App”. 

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9. No “I” in “Team” 

Using the word “Team” in your handle helps fans connect with your brand.

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10. Location: Country, State, City

This tells fans where your company is located.

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11. Domain Name 

Using “dotcom” or “com” in your handle will help fans remember your website.

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12. “Inc” Works for Businesses

Use “Inc” if you run a corporation. 

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13. Just “Ask” 

I used “Ask” when I found that “aaronlee” was already in use. That’s how the Ask Aaron Lee brand came about.

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Key Takeaway

As you see here, there are many ways to craft the perfect Twitter username.

These tips also work for Facebook vanity URLs & usernames on Instagram too. 

What about you? What helped you find the perfect username when your first choice was already taken?

- See more at: http://www.postplanner.com/how-to-find-good-twitter-usernames/#sthash.VuB3sy9P.dpuf

After 1.5 Million Posts Analyzed, Here is the Perfect Facebook Post!

Do you know how to craft the perfect Facebook post?

Being on the Facebook News Feed has become as hard as being on Google’s first page.

The fierce competition and recent changes in the algorithm are turning this almost impossible, and what makes the difference often times comes down to small details, testing and optimizing every single aspect of your content.

TrackMaven analyzed more than 1.5 million pieces of content on 6,000 Pages, here is what they said…

“We found that when the various elements of a Facebook post are strategically crafted, the viral reach of posts is extended in the News Feed.” 

Now, let’s take a look at these different items TrackMaven is calling the nuts and bolts of the perfect Facebook post:

Word Count

I know you’ve probably heard that short posts get better performance. It’s a myth. I’ve seen many people use Facebook pages pretty much as if they were blogs, Mari Smith is very successful writing long posts (John Haydon points it out in this post).

This study backs it up with data, posts with 80-89 words get double the engagement (6.19%) that those with 70-79 words (3.42%).

Facebook posts with 80-89 words get double the engagement (6.19%) that those with 70-79 words...

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My advice, get your message across in a way that will accomplish the goal for that specific post, whether it takes 10 or 300 words. The point is not to be afraid of the word count.

Visual Content

We all know visual content gets more engagement. According to this analysis, posts with photos get an average of 2.35 interactions per post, while text-only posts get only 1.71.

Of course you have to consider that 88% of Facebook posts do have an image.

After Hours

Turns out posting after hours (5pm – 1am EST) can get you 11% more interactions than those published during working hours.

This makes sense even without looking at the data, people should be more likely to interact with content when 1) is not overwhelmed with daily activities, and 2) is receiving fewer promotional messages on the screen.

Weekends

Posts published on Sunday can get 25% more likes, comments and shares than those published on Wednesday, but only 18% of the total posts are published on weekends…

Which proves my previous point: Test posting at times when there is less competition in the News Feed.

Facebook: Posting on Sunday can get you 25% more Engagement than Wednesday, but only 18% of posts...

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Hashtags

I recently shared my opinion about Facebook Hashtags on PostPlanner. I basically said that I don’t really see hashtags making a big impact.

TrackMaven says that posts with hashtags see an average of 60% more interactions. I’ll be paying closer attention to this in the following days.

Questions

Posts that ask a question get 23% more engagement. This is obvious, a question is a form of call-to-action.

To me, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the post has to be a question, but that if you’re writing about an specific topic and you’re sharing your point of view, you can close the post with a question to generate engagement.

Facebook Posts that ask a question get 23% more engagement

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Infographic

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Discover How being human helped this Facebook Page Get 1.2 Million Likes on a single post [Case Study]

What does it mean when businesses are asked to be more human?

Share funny jokes?
Tell people about their day?
Share their favourite TV shows?

Although the above might seem a little farfetched in actual fact those suggestions aren’t far of the truth.

To humanize your business you must be willing to showcase its personality. 

How can a business have a personality? Well the simple fact is people love to connect with other people they know, like and can trust. This concept also applies to your business. Your customers are going to be more willing to do business with you if you can demonstrate you are an organisation that can be trusted and one that is a pleasure to deal with.

I believe one of the best ways to learn is to look at those who have already accomplished what you are aiming to achieve. That is why in this post I will show you how “Humans Of New York” have used being human to successfully connect and engage with their audience of over 7.7 Million Fans.

Before we take a look at the different ways “Humans Of New York” showcase their personality it’s important to realise what the page stands for. According to Brandon who founded the project : “Humans of New York provides a worldwide audience with daily glimpses into the lives of strangers in New York City.”

How being human helps your business connect with its customers

1) Storytelling

Humans of New York have done a great job of providing a glimpse into the lives of strangers living in New York City.

How have they achieved this?

Rather than just posting an image Brandon who started the project understood that people connect on a deeper level when their passions and ideas are shared. To help convey this he not only took photographs of the people he wished to feature on his Facebook page but also asked them to share a story about themselves. It was this story telling that helped the page grow at a rapid rate.

By sharing the stories of the strangers, Facebook fans were able to find out more about the people behind the lense and what they stood for. As a result the posts began to experience a large amount of shares from people who felt they could relate to these stories and wanted to tell their friends. In turn helping to increase the page’s reach and visibility. Below is an example of how this story shared by a dog owner helped the page to receive over600,000 likes and nearly 50,000 shares on a single post.

2) Building Trust

To help build trust with your audience you must remain consistent with your content ~ Click To Tweet

By sharing their stories on a daily basis Humans Of New York were able to increase their trust with their audience as they began to get use to the type of content that was being shared. As a result more and more fans began to comment on the posts as they began to relate to the stories and what others have been through.

Through posting consistent daily content sharing the stories of other New Yorkers this had now created a passionate Facebook community who loved to listen and engage with the stories and in some cases even help out.

Here is a great example of how the Facebook community reacted when this story was shared and how they showed their support. This also led the post to receive over 1.2Million Likes and over 48,000 comments!

3) Transparency

The more transparent your business can be the better the relationship with its customers. ~ Click To Tweet

One of the great ways Humans of New York have been transparent with their fans is to share the stories directly from the people featured on the page. What makes this unique?

The best part about the stories shared on the page are that Brandon talks to each individual to find out their story then shares the part he feels reflects them as an individual. All the quotes taken from individuals are kept exactly as they have phrased them. This not only allows the page to build up a reputation as one that is authentic but also helps its fans connect with the stories behind the images as they are a true reflection of the individual. Editing these stories or changing the quotes to suit the brand may not have had the same effect. This is also a great demonstration of how the page helps to build trust not only with the brand but also with the content that gets shared.

Here is a great interview with Brandon where he discusses how he creates the stories for his Facebook page.

4) Building relationships

By being more open and sharing those stories that matter the most to your audience you will begin to notice a better relationship developing with your fans. As your fans begin to relate and understand your content better your business will start to experience better engagement and also begin to develop more loyal and passionate fans.

Building relationships on Facebook is a marathon not a sprint so pace yourself. ~Click To Tweet

When building this relationship with your fans it’s important to note that this does take time and requires a consistent effort on your part.

The more you can offer your Facebook audience the more you will get in return. ~Click To Tweet

Humans of New York have done a great job of building this relationship with their community by posting consistent content and engaging in conversation with their fans. Not only do they share their posts on a daily basis but also comment and reply to fans along the way. Not only does this build the relationship with your fans but is also a great way to get feedback on the type of content you are sharing.

Here’s an example of how Brandon used the comments to share more about the person featured in the post and replied to fans.

Key Takeaways

It’s actually very simple to help build a better relationship with your fans and to humanise your business let them discover the people behind the organisation. This means showcasing what your business has planned behind the scenes, future projects, events attended and even fun facts about the employees that work there. It’s also very important when looking to build trust with your audience that your business is open with its fans. This means that your business is honest about its practices and owns up to any problems or issues that they are facing. Avoiding this will result in negative feedback and loss of trust. Lastly be there to engage with your fans, this means joining in conversation, highlighting their ideas and input (user generated content) and even rewarding them through competitions or giveaways.

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How To Leverage Social Media

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Social media has been around for years, so it should be easy to figure out how to leverage it, right?

In part it is true, but things get complicated by all the misinformation circulating about social media marketing. From leveraging tactics to tracking issues, you are bombarded with conflicting messages, including whether social media marketing is worth using at all.

Here are 7 lies about social media marketing you probably believe:

Lie #1: The more followers you have, the better off you are

The game of numbers does not apply to Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. These social networks are smart. If you have followers that aren’t engaged, the algorithms these sites use will make sure very few people see your message.

A perfect example of this is a Facebook fan page I started sometime ago called Gym Junkies.

Anytime a post goes up on that fan page, it typically receives over 2,000 likes and 300 plus shares. That’s too not bad, considering the page only has 93,695 fans.

There is another fan page on Body Building Tips and Tricks, and it has over one million fans. Can you guess how many likes and shares it gets when new content gets posted?

The good posts typically get 800 plus likes and around 50 shares. It’s nothing to brag about, considering the page has over a million fans.

What would you rather take? More followers or an engaged audience that’s ten times smaller? I hope you’d pick the engaged audience. Social sites look at how much traction your post generates in relation to the number of followers you have. If the ratio is good, they will start showing your content to more people outside of your circle.

That’s how you generate more traffic: focus on getting the right followers who will become your engaged audience.

Lie #2: Social sharing buttons will get you more shares

Did you know that adding social sharing buttons to your site will get you more traffic?

Although it sounds right, in most cases it isn’t true. Sure, for blogs, social sharing buttons work great because people love reading educational content.

But adding social sharing buttons to most sites will actually hurt them.Why? Because people don’t want to share your product pages or your about page. By placing buttons on those pages, you’ll just distract your visitors and decrease your conversion rates.

Just look at the image above from Add This. Do you really want to tweet out this about page? Or share it on your Facebook wall? Probably not.

Heck, these guys even add social sharing buttons to their Terms of Service Page.

Considering that they are the 197^th most popular site in the world, according to Alexa, and they offer social media tools, you would think they would generate more social shares than other sites. But a quickTwitter search reveals that no one has shared their terms of service page.

That should prove to you that adding social sharing buttons to pages that no one cares about won’t help you generate more traffic, but it will distract people.

The best place to add social media buttons is your blog. People will share great content, assuming it is free. But don’t expect them to share your lead generation, product, about, or services pages.

Lie #3: Social media traffic doesn’t convert well

If social media traffic didn’t convert, do you think Facebook would be worth over a 100 billion dollars? And it’s not just Facebook. LinkedIn is worth over 20 billion dollars, and Twitter is worth over 30 billion dollars.

These companies are worth a lot of money because their user base spends money. The users spend enough money to make advertising on these sites profitable.

I’m not saying you need to start spending money on paid social ads, but you should leverage these sites because their visitors do convert.

Just look at the image above. You will see the number of conversions TimothySykes.com received from Facebook. A hundred and forty three conversions from Facebook in one month isn’t that bad, considering it takes less than an hour to post images, quotes and status updates on Facebook. It netted the company a bit more than $26,000. To top it off, not a dollar was spent on Facebook ads.

Not only does social media traffic convert, but you can also measure that conversion. By setting up goals within your Google Analytics, you can see how much each of these social sites is generating for you.

Lie #4: Everyone should be leveraging social media

The biggest lie I hear about social media marketing these days is that everyone should be leveraging it. Although I wish it were true, social media isn’t a good fit for everyone.

For example, Palantir is a company you probably haven’t heard of even though they have raised $896 million. Why haven’t you heard of them?Because most of their income and revenue comes from government contracts.

Sure, they are on Twitter and Facebook. They even have a blog. But none of those things help them bring in revenue. A lot of what they do isn’t public, and never can be, due to their government contracts.

Social media won’t really help a company like this. All it can do is potentially make them look cool and hip and maybe help them recruit young talent.

There are some businesses that just aren’t cut out for the social web.

If your business doesn’t rely on income from the web (and you have no plans to change that), social media may not be a good fit for you. You can still leverage it as a recruiting tool or as a way to communicate with unsatisfied customers, but you are probably better off investing your time and energy into a different channel.

Lie #5: You need to participate on a daily basis

If you have great information to share on a daily basis, that’s awesome. You should use the social web on a daily basis.

But if you don’t, then consider using it less frequently.

Focus on creating high quality updates and interactions instead of being on these social sites because you have to. Posting on a daily basis doesn’t guarantee your success, and it won’t necessarily make your social accounts more popular.

If you look at the numbers, participating on the social media on a daily basis can actually hurt you. For example, do you know how frequently you should be posting on Facebook to maximize your reach? If you are thinking daily, you are wrong. Posting once every 2 days is the ideal frequency.

If you have something great to say or share, then post it on the social site of your choice. But if you don’t, then avoid posting.

Lie #6: What works for B2B companies won’t work for B2C companies

Every time I give a speech about social media marketing, someone from the audience says, “Those tactics look great for companies who target other businesses, but what should I do if I have a consumer-based company?”

Whether you have a consumer-based or business-facing company, you use the same tactics. From sharing great information to responding to people who have questions to promoting your own products and services, the tactics are identical.

For example, at KISSmetrics we tweet marketing-related content that helps other businesses.

Walmart, who targets consumers, tweets content that helps consumers, e.g, how to avoid bear attacks when camping.

As you can see, it doesn’t matter if your target audience is a business or a consumer. What works for one usually works for the other.

Lie #7: You should ignore negative feedback

The worst thing you can do is ignore negative feedback. If someone isn’t happy with you or your company, you shouldn’t ignore that person. Instead, you should embrace the criticism and try to improve.

Just look at Comcast. They even have a Twitter channel dedicated to support. Every time anyone tweets something negative about them, they apologize and try to help. It doesn’t matter if it is their fault or not, they are continually trying to improve.

Every time I tweet something negative about Comcast, I get a phone call within an hour. The company’s customer service fixes whatever issues I am experiencing and typically gives me a discount or a credit for the inconvenience.

Sure, you may be thinking they respond because I have over 100,000 followers, but they also respond to people like my sister, who doesn’t have even a few thousand followers. They offer her the same apology and incentives as they offer me.

Although Comcast’s service is terrible and their support isn’t great, I stick with them because I do feel they try to improve every time I give them negative feedback.

As a business owner, you should embrace negative feedback. Respond to it, and try to solve the problem without getting emotional. It will help your business get better.

Conclusion

There are a lot of misconceptions about social media marketing. Just because you read something in a blog post or hear something from a credible source doesn’t mean it is true.

Always do your own research, and try to improve. Social media marketing is here to stay, and it can drive a lot of business for you, assuming you are leveraging it correctly.

What other lies about social media marketing do you hear?

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