In life, we are often told that there are a lot of things we can’t simply take back which includes the things that we said and the things we’ve done or failed to do. The same thing can actually be said about social media marketing and it primarily has something to do with what we do or what information we release on the internet as a part of our internet marketing efforts.
Social marketing has become every bit as important as that of SEO (perhaps it’s even more important) with more than 90 percent of web marketing professionals using social media, running any kind of business online has pretty much become a social business and we need to present our business as well as we do on a personal level, if not better. Coming up with a good internet marketing strategy amidst all the changes brought on by social media does not come easy but being aware of the various common blunders in this particular line of business will certainly help.
The “let’s throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks” approach to social media
This kind of approach to social media is bound to only get you so far. Unfortunately people still tend to make the same mistake. Look at your social marketing strategy as you would a conventional marketing and sales plan. For one thing, here are a couple of questions that one ought to be asking themselves when coming up with a social content web marketing strategy:
- What are the goals of your campaign and how do you plan to reach it?
- Who am I creating my content for and what are the things that they are likely to be interested in?
- What results can you expect and what measures do you need to take in order to increase your chances of getting the desired results?
Forgetting to optimize social media profiles
One needs to start looking at social media as an effective way to campaign their offsite SEO efforts. What exactly does that mean though? It means among other things, creating content for social marketing in the same way as you would for your business site. This also means making an effort to find out what keywords your targeted users are actually searching for and creating relevant content using these keywords as well as adapting them as needed.
- Make sure that your company profile is optimized with the right keywords
- Ensure that your social media profile is pointing back to the desired URL
- Make sure that contact information is always accessible and clearly visible
Reacting to negative feedback
You can’t expect everyone out there to like you thus it is far to unrealistic to expect that you will never encounter any negative feedbacks about your business as you go about your SEO or web marketing efforts especially when it comes to social marketing. The World Wide Web is a huge platform for people to voice out their experiences and opinions and many people make good use of it to give praise or criticism as well as giving feedbacks for products or services that you offer. Think of any subject and you’ll find that people always have a couple of things to say about it. Now you certainly can’t expect to control all the aspect of your customer’s experience and who they end up sharing it with but you certainly can control the manner in which your business reacts and responds to negative feedbacks or criticisms.
- Strive to address negative feedbacks or comments directly and attempt to mend your relationship with your customers if at all possible
- Make use of social media tracking tools which will enable you to respond to negative feedbacks or comments about your business quickly and effectively
- Encourage people to share positive comments about their experience with your business by rewarding them and making it worth their while. This will strengthen your relationship with clients.
- Invite the people spreading negative comments or feedbacks to discuss the problem offline. This will send a message that you are responsible and that you care enough to discuss the matter on a personal level as you work things out.
Failing to properly measure results
You can’t improve something that you aren’t measuring – you’ve probably heard of that before and the same thing holds true when it comes to social media and SEO campaigns. After all, you’ve invested much money, time and resources in establishing an online presence it’s only natural that you know for certain what it is that you’re actually getting out of these investments. Measurement is the key to an effective social marketing program and there are various tools or applications out there that can help you keep track of your progress such as Trackur to Google Analytics. What are some of the things you should be keeping an eye on when measuring results?
- The conversion rate generated by your social media campaign
- Topics that create the most interest from prospective clients
- Social networking websites that your targeted clients prefer
- Leads and sales
- Inquiries and signups
- Revenue
- Duration of sales cycle
- How much interest or engagement you prospects are showing towards your business
Social media now represents an essential aspect to running any kind of online business regardless of size or niche market. Social marketing has become the new norm and it’s easy to see that when you look at recent data and trends in the web marketing business. Are you at all confident in your social media methods and strategies? A crucial step towards the right and prosperous direction is to know which blunders to avoid and how to best steer clear of them.
