5 Ways Social Media Could Hurt Your Business by @albertcostill
Theres no denying that social media is a powerful resource for brands. With 74% of online adults on social media, its an effective way to reach and interact with your audienceand share information about your brand.
However, social media can also do harm to your business if you dont understand how to properly manage your social media channels. Check out the examples below to learn more about the pitfalls many business owners run into.
Those new to the concept of social media often get a rude awakening once they get started. Most business owners are used to traditional advertising methods, and they tend to jump into social media thinking they can use tools like Twitter and Facebook to shout messages at their audience. The notion of inbound marketing, or push vs. pull marketing, is still new to them and they usually learn the hard way that spamming users can make them look bad.
The value in using social media as a marketing and advertising channel relies on the trust and rapport you build through interactions with your potential customers. Usingthese tools to only send advertising messages to your customersis a turn off.It says a lot about your business when a visitor lands on your website and social media accounts to only see blog posts, status updates, or tweets strictly touting your products and features.
As the co-founder of Buddy Media, Michael Lazerow, toldMatthew Bishop on LinkedIn that the goal for marketers on social media is to engage them by discovering how do you as a brand get into the conversation. In other words, you need to create content that your audience wants to share and discuss.
In years past, it was possible for a business to still thrive despite having a rude owner or poor customer service. The Internet has absolutely changed that game because of the power consumers have to talk about their experiences with a business via online review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Remember, one bad experience shared on a review site could potentially be seen by hundreds, if not thousands, ofpeople.
The same can be said about social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Remember the whole Amys Baking Company fiasco? Instead of addressing consumer complaints and finding out why there were negative reviews, the owners went ballistic. In fact, the debacle has become a classic example of what not to do on social media.
While some would argue that getting your name mentioned is better than being ignored, thats not an excuse to make it a habit. Customers are likely to forget about a hiccup here or there, but with so much competition in e-commerce, its not difficult for customers to turn to brands with better customer service.
And, its just not the handling of customer service that is important. Its how promptly you respond to customers as well. Convince and Convert have found that 42% customers who have a complaint on social media expect a response within 60 minutes. Whether thats realistic or not isnt the issue; its the fact that customers demand a speedy response.
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5 Ways Social Media Could Hurt Your Business by @albertcostill