REAVELED: 10 Things You SHOULDN’T Do on Social Media

1. You SHOULDN’T get discouraged

Top of my list is this because I see it often. People get into social media and they think they will be instantly successful plus they find out how much work it actually is and then they give up a few months later. Social media a long-term investment. It takes time, and results don’t usually come right away. Don’t get discouraged. If you follow good advice and you can see the needle moving in the right direction, then keep at it. You need to build relationships and keep sharing good content. The followers and social engagement will come, just be patient.

2. You SHOULDN’T ignore the data

Real Estate buffs are often quoted as saying “Location, location, location”, when it comes to marketing and social media I say “Measure, measure, measure”. How can you know what’s working and what’s not if you aren’t measuring your performance and benchmarking that against previous results? Is social bringing traffic to your site? Is that traffic converting – i.e. turning into business? Find out if it is and make sure you use the data. Also, some people say that tracking likes, retweets and followers doesn’t matter, but I believe that you need to have followers and retweets in order to spread awareness, generate web traffic and to build your brand. So while sales is the most important metric, there are micro-metrics that lead up to the dollar signs. Don’t forget the micro-metrics while looking at the bigger picture.

3. You SHOULDN’T treat all social media channels the same

When it comes to social media – one size does not fit all. People use Twitter different then they use Facebook, and Pinterest is different than Instagram. So use different messages and content depending on the channel. In order to provide the right content in the right channel you need to understand what people are doing there. Facebook is for keeping up to date with friends, family and brands we follow. Twitter is real-time sharing of news and topics of interest. Pinterest is great for “window shopping” and for cultivating content and ideas. Instagram is for sharing images instantly. Each social media channel has their niche, you need to be savvy to this and to post the right stuff. Don’t know what to post? Check out this handy infographic.

4. You SHOULDN’T do everything yourself

It’s very hard keeping up with everything that’s going on in social media, running a successful business and having a social life. So I encourage you to find ways to reduce the manual work associated with social media. Use services like Klout to find things to share and to schedule posts and use services like Twitfox to help you automatically favourite other people’s tweets based on interests. But be careful, some services are spammy and don’t comply with Twitter’s rules, so choose wisely.

5. You SHOULDN’T be afraid of being yourself

Social media is social and nobody wants to socialize with a robot. You have to have character, you have to show your personality. Too many businesses get into social media and their posts read like a team of marketing, legal and PR people have all had their approval/editing rounds. So don’t be afraid of showing your human side.

6. You SHOULDN’T be too promotional

Running too many “Buy now, get 10% off” types of campaigns on social media is not the right approach. I’m not saying you shouldn’t run them, you should if you want to make the sale, but you need to use them sparingly. Most of your content should be shareable content that helps your customers achieve their goals. If you got that covered, then by all means, promote away. If you want a great book on this topic, check out ‘Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook’ by Gary Vaynerchuk.

7. You SHOULDN’T forget about listening

There are some great tools out there to help you search for conversations that are happening around your brand, your business category and topics that fit your products and services. Twitter advanced search is a great tool for this type of listening. You can use it to find leads by using specific search terms. Here is a great guide on how to use it.

8. You SHOULDN’T forget about weekends
Weekends are a good time for people to catch up on their social media posts and typically the volume of posts from your competitors will be less, so your posts can be seen more easily. So post on the weekends. I often find the most meaningful and business networking type of activities happen on the weekend because people have the time.

9. You SHOULDN’T spread yourself too thin
If you don’t have the resources to be on all the major social media networks, then try not to be. It’s tempting to try everything, and I encourage exploration, but it looks bad if you are only posting every 2 weeks, 2 months, etc… You need to be able to keep up the consistency and post regularly. So I recommend starting small and working your way up. Add social networks as you’re able to take them on and add the ones where your potentials customers are first.

10. You SHOULDN’T buy fans, followers, etc…

My last point could’ve also been my first because it’s crucial, but it sits here so I hope you remember it. There are many services out there that you can use to buy followers and fans. Don’t do this. For one thing, many of these fans and followers won’t be real, engaged people. And secondly if your goal is to create more business, I don’t see how people that have been “bought” are going to help you do this. So resist the urge to buy. I know you looking at your list of followers and thinking you wish it was bigger, but trust me, it will come – you just need to be patient and to continue engaging and building relationships with real people.