The 7 Deadly Sins of Self-Promotion Online

#1. You don’t have a website: For businesses and individuals that want to promote themselves online, having a dedicated website is a must! You need to have a place online that can act as a landing page for all your business and important information so that people who search for you can find you! Now, this can be as simple as a Facebook page or as complicated as a full featured website, but carving out a little piece of the internet for yourself or your business is a must! Oh, and social media accounts don’t count as websites, sorry!

#2. You’re not covering all social media: So you’re online and testing the waters with social media but you aren’t yet comfortable with all the platforms. That’s understandable, but you need to at least have an account set up for your business in each and every major social network, which means Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and if you are selling things online, Pinterest! If you’re not ready to use the account yet, don’t start until you are ready to commit to it, but at least have the basic profile information filled out as well as an icon picture set in place that is something you already use on other platforms!

#3. You’re misusing social media: The beauty of the various social media platforms is that you use each platform for different purposes. They are not one size fits all! What works on Twitter does not work on Instagram, and what works on Instagram, doesn’t work on Facebook. You need to understand how best to use each media to their maximum potential! A great book that covers this is Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk! If you’re looking to promote online and you are confused about how to properly market and grow an audience across the various social media platforms, you need to read that book.

#4. You post too often: Most people consider personalities and businesses that post too frequently on social media spammers. Even if you are putting out completely unique information with each tweet or Facebook post, too many posts in a short amount of time annoy people and they will just end up unfollowing you! Stop posting on social media every 5 minutes, and bring it down to a manageable number. Tweet up to 3 times an hour (not including retweets or replies), Post on Instagram 1-3 times per day max and stick to about the same number of Facebook posts during peak traffic times!

#5. You don’t post enough: So you have these accounts and you post on them once a week or worse, once a month! Well that is a sure-fire way to get nowhere fast with your business! Like I said before, if you aren’t ready to start using a social media platform, don’t use, just leave your profile set with a message that says “coming soon” to give your followers a reason to subscribe even if you aren’t currently posting. Once you are ready to use the platform to it’s full potential, make a plan and stick to a regular posting schedule!

#6. You’re not providing value to your audience: How would you feel if Starbucks started posting pictures on Instagram of shoes? You would probably be confused as to why a major coffee company is suddenly interested in footwear! If you follow Starbucks in social media, you probably follow them to see what’s new in store or when your favorite seasonal drink becomes available, right? So, the shoes really don’t provide any value to you. If you wanted to look at shoes, you’d follow DSW or Payless! Well, the same goes for you and your audience. Make sure you are posting things that apply to the people who are following you so they get value out of the experience. If your posts are all over the place, it will confuse your online presence and you won’t be able to establish a firm following.

#7. You’re ignoring video: For some reason, I have noticed that many business and personalities on the internet are apparently afraid of video, although video sharing sites like YouTube and Twitch are gaining ridiculous amounts of success and every other day I feel like new video capture apps and features are being added to our current social media feeds. There is a clear trend here, video is happening and its big! So, you really need to get over the fact that the camera adds 10 lbs and start bringing your message to the video sphere. YouTube is a great way to share quick messages with your followers and share important or helpful information with others, but it’s not the only way! I already wrote about ways to add video to your website, but even creating videos for places like Instagram and Facebook will really help to establish your footing with video and bring added value to your followers!

I hope this post helps you to identify areas in your online marketing plan that may be preventing you from reaching your fullest potential online! If you have any additional no-no’s for self-promotion online, let me know in the comments!

xoxo,