Common Social Media Mistakes

Published by admin on March 1, 2010. Filed under ,

Many businesses are jumping into the social media realm full force and we applaud these efforts! Likewise, many people are falling prey to common mistakes and errors.  Although social media tools are relatively simple to operate from a technical standpoint, the mindset that a business must adopt in order to approach these tools correctly is not so simple.

I just read a blog post by Mirna Bard entitled, “Top 50 Social Media Mistakes Made by Small Businesses.“ I thought this post was excellent because it gives businesses a concise way to ensure they are following the “unsaid rules” of social media. I thought this list was worth repeating as making these mistakes can be very detrimental to the success of a business’ social media efforts. Use this list as a checklist to determine what needs to be changed or what you are doing right!

  1. Lack of planning (Huge one!)
  2. Lack of clear and measurable objectives
  3. Not learning about social media
  4. Lack of knowledge about target audience
  5. No commitment
  6. Lack of consistency
  7. Not realizing that there is a time dedication
  8. Worrying too much about negative comments and brand haters
  9. Focusing too much about the technology aspect
  10. Passing the buck to assistants and interns
  11. Spreading themselves too thin by creating profiles everywhere
  12. Not completing profiles
  13. Uploading pictures of pets or children for avatars
  14. Fake friending just to pitch
  15. Only talking about oneself, brand or products
  16. Hard selling
  17. Using the same tactics on every site
  18. Responding to every negative comment
  19. Not thinking before commenting
  20. Not measuring (Another huge one!)
  21. Giving up on social media too easily
  22. Forgetting it’s about 2-way dialogue
  23. Setting profiles and forgetting them
  24. Thinking social media is a magic solution to their business problems
  25. Jumping on without having a hub (web site or blog)
  26. Neglecting to put links back to their web site or blog
  27. Not taking a enough time to do research and listen/observe
  28. No systems in place
  29. Not focusing on core tasks
  30. Not separating business and personal social media time
  31. Putting eggs all in one basket
  32. Continuing with tactics that are clearly not working for them
  33. Taking the time to put a social media schedule in place
  34. Not setting time boundaries
  35. Not paying attention to customer needs
  36. Not providing value
  37. Not knowing how to integrate with other marketing/advertising efforts
  38. Not knowing how to use all the social media categories together
  39. Focusing too much on number of fans/followers/friends
  40. Not making enough effort to seek out the right sites for their target audience
  41. Neglected (not updating) websites or blogs
  42. Using generic or auto responses
  43. Spamming people with private messages, DMs or e-mails
  44. Using social media as a replacement strategy
  45. Not willing to experiment
  46. Being close-minded about adding strangers to network
  47. Not learning from mistakes
  48. Bribing bloggers and others to write about products and services
  49. Not spending time finding evangelists and influencers
  50. Forgetting that building relationships can be lots of fun

Thank you, Mirna, for compiling this great list.