When it comes to using social media as a business owner to gain customers, amass a following and ultimately grow your business, there is a lot of conflicting information on the right and wrong strategies to use. Things change so quickly online and you may very well be using a strategy that is not just outdated and ineffective, but actually damaging to your business. As an online business consultant, many clients come to me when they are at a loss for how to proceed with their online presence after weeks, months or even years of effort have left them feeling desperate, uninspired, and with little to no following. Over and over again I hear many of the same common mistakes being made with social media strategy, and today I want to highlight five of the most common mistakes I hear about that can really ruin your business reputation and leave your business behind the times in terms of social media. If any of these examples sound like you, don’t worry! There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I also want to share with you 1 resource that can help you reverse any damage you may have unintentionally caused to your business and get your numbers growing in a positive direction!
1. Paying for follows or likes
Paying for followers is an antiquated practice that is unfortunately still touted as online business cannon by a few misguided online marketers. Not only is paying for follows a useless way to build a following online, on many platforms it is actually against the rules! When you pay for your followers, you aren’t actually getting a customer base of people who are there to interact with you and buy from your business, you are simply getting names on a screen that essentially do nothing but cost you money. When it comes down to it, you may think it makes your business look better to have a solid number of followers, but people aren’t blind. When they see the large follower count and little to no interaction, they are going to realize something is up. Don’t make this mistake, save your money and apply it to real investments for your business like the resource shared at the end of this post if you are truly concerned about looking good on social platforms!
2. Posting inconsistently
One of the hardest parts of running a business is developing a sense of trust with your customers. It can take a lifetime to earn and seconds to destroy, especially in the fast paced world of online marketing. When businesses use social media platforms inconsistently, they aren’t just creating a scenario that makes it hard for them to attract new followers and potential customers, but they are also putting a big fat label on their business that says “we are inconsistent and you can’t trust us!” Unfortunately, when it comes to using social media for your business, the idea of doing something rather than nothing doesn’t actually apply. In this case it is better for you to stay silent than to open your mouth only to put your foot in it! So, if you are using social media inconsistently, you need to quickly reevaluate your platforms and decide if you need to take a step back and take on less in order to provide consistency and quality on the platforms on which you do choose to engage!
3. Ignoring your comments
As a business, ignoring the comments and messages of your followers is akin to walking away from a customer in mid sentence. If you are lucky enough to be receiving engagement from your audience, it means you are doing something right and have a high chance of making a sale. Don’t just walk away from the followers that are engaging with you. Make sure to carve out time in your schedule to reply to messages and comments from your fans, and of course to share and like an content they post about you!
4. Playing in your own yard
You may think that the purpose of a business developing different social media platforms is so they can use them to communicate with their community. However, when all you ever do is use your own platforms to converse with your customers and followers, you miss opportunities to engaged and attract new customers and followers from everywhere else online! Now, I’m not saying that you have to interact with people all over the web, but the best strategy for building your following involves leaving your own space. It’s so important for businesses to interact with each other and make an appearance on other people’s platforms. This could be through a guest post, a collaboration or even just interacting in the comments of another community with the same ideal customer base, but you need to put your business out there!
5. Not optimizing across platforms
The final very common mistake that businesses make when using social media is that they treat every platform the same when they should be using each to their own strengths! Your website and blog should be treated differently than your Instagram account, just as Twitter does not operate under the same conditions as Facebook. If you are going to use multiple platforms for your business, it’s important to learn the differences of each and how to optimize the content you post to each so that you are maximizing the effort you’re spending in each area!
This 1 Resource can help You Repair the Damage and Build Your Following!
Now, like I mentioned earlier, if you believe you are making one or more of these extremely common social media mistakes in promoting your business online, the good news is that things can be done to repair the damage and restore the reputation of your business online. So now I’d like to tell you about one resource that is the equivolent of the “easy button” when it comes to learning about and understanding how to use social media effectively for your online business, and that resource is Empire Building!
Empire Building is my flagship online business program that teaches you the ins and outs of using social media to build a business online using tried and true strategies and techniques. You don’t need to spend time you don’t have researching social media platforms and learning how to use each efficiently, within Empire Building, I give you all the information you need to know to get started using these platforms the right way so that you are moving the needle in your business!
If you haven’t heard, all 5 of my Empire Building Blueprints (workbooks that include information and worksheets that teach you everything you need to know about building your online business) are published and now is the perfect time to join the program if you want to jumpstart success with your social platforms! The 5 Blueprints include:
- Branding
- Communication
- Community Building
- Advertising
- and Income
When you sign up for Empire Building, not only do you get access to my 5 Empire Building Blueprints, my dedicated Facebook community for group coaching and unlimited Q&A access to me, but now you also get 4 additional Upgrade Blueprints as a special bonus! The bonus upgrades include:
- Creating Click-Worthy Headlines
- Pricing Strategies that Sell
- Creating Your Business Plan
- and Email List Building Basics
If Empire Building sounds interesting to you, I want to let you know about my upcoming Free Webinar on my 5 Pillar System for Building a Successful Online Business! I’ll be reviewing the 5 Pillars of the Empire Building Program and giving you strategies and insights you can use immediately to start building your brand online, PLUS I’ll be sharing a special limited time offer for the 1 Year Birthday of the program that you won’t want to miss if you are interested in signing up!
xoxo,
This post first appeared on Strange & Charmed on August 17th, 2015 and is being republished for the 2016 Empire Building Relaunch!
Thanks for the invaluable tips!! I have already checked into your Empire Building program and it is just what I need to get my new business off the ground. Looking forward to it!