MISTAKE #1
- Lack of Activity
The number one reason advertising on social media sites delivers disappointing results comes down to one simple thing: lack of activity. . A lot of people carry the misconception that all one needs to do is sign up for a social media site, and the floodgates of self-promotion will open wide. But nothing could be further from the truth! You must be active on your social media site in order to attract attention to anything you may be promoting. Otherwise, the site’s members will have little or no information about you, which will render your exposure all but non-existent. The best way to avoid falling victim to this problem is to simply take the time to log in each and every day, and take advantage of the site’s features by searching for people, topics, or articles that you find interesting. Additionally, it’s important to post updates about yourself as often as you can. This practice helps to ensure that you maintain a level of interest about you among the site’s members. By staying active in this way, you magnify interest in you, right along with awareness about the product, service or concept you are promoting. Be active, or risk being invisible!
MISTAKE #2
- No Connections or the Wrong Connections
The right connections are very important in order to achieve success from using a social networking site. You must have friends, and you must have connections. Without friends and connections, it will be impossible for people to learn about you. You know, the best way of marketing is almost always through word of mouth, so the more friends that you have, the more popular you look and by association, your message can be distributed far more effectively. In fact, I have seen many social networking sites where people may have thousands of friends, and because of their connections, they are spreading relevant information about themselves throughout all of their friends on their social sites whenever they send an update. This makes for a much broader awareness of what is going on with whatever company or service you are trying to market. Being active is crucial as we pointed about above, but if you are active and you have no friends, then you might as well be talking to yourself. So you want to make sure that you are bringing on new connections as often as possible, that you’re sending friend requests, and once you send those friend requests, that you grow your relationship with your connections as much as you can. After all, having a friend that doesn’t know about you is the same as not having a friend at all. MISTAKE #3
- No Profile Picture
When you sign up for a social site, depending upon what it is that you are marketing, you’re likely to find it beneficial to include a profile picture. Not a cartoon image, not a flyer picture, or any kind of thumbnail image. You need to have a picture of yourself. People like to converse with people they can see, and having a picture of yourself posted helps site users to feel the real person behind your social site profile. Once you’ve made the decision to include a profile picture, make sure that it is going to be equal to whatever it is that you are marketing. If you are a lawyer, you want to make sure that you’re dressed for the part by wearing a suit in your photo. If you are a teacher, a business casual look may be more appropriate. If you are somebody that works from home, then your style of dress should reflect a work from home atmosphere. Most importantly, make sure that your picture is tasteful and looks professional. There’s nothing like a bad profile picture to turn somebody off very quickly from one of your friend requests. It is important, important, important, to include a profile picture, and if that picture is going to do its job for you, it has to put you forward in the best possible light.
MISTAKE #4
- No Information About You
When you sign up for a social networking site, please take the time to fill out the information about yourself. Taking the time to do this immediately makes you more sociable and relatable. People like to know your likes and dislikes, from your favorite movie, book, or hobby, all things that are especially important if you are marketing materials that you might produce. If you are promoting a book, you would want to say your favorite book, of course, is your book! These approaches bring more awareness to the products that you are marketing. If you fail to include information about yourself, you are more likely to be rejected when you send out friend or connection requests. The more information that you provide, the better, in as concise and simple a way as possible.
MISTAKE #5
- No Website Links
If you are trying to promote any kind of service that you do on the web, and you’re not linking back to your personal website, then what is the point of being on the social site? Make sure that you provide website links within every social site that you sign up for. Do it wherever the opportunity exists, including (when you obtain permission) on your friends’ home pages or where status updates are posted. Always include your website link, no matter where you are on that social site. This will create a better listing for you on search engines, and it will also create a buzz to encourage people to visit your site.
MISTAKE #6
- No Feedback From Other People
If nobody is leaving comments on your social site pages, you may find that the image of your business will suffer. The best way to encourage feedback on your own social site pages it to leave comments on other people’s pages so that they can respond back to you, thus creating increased communication involving you. You might try complimenting others about what you learned from their business when you met them at a networking event, for example. It is always important to have feedback on your social site pages, if for no other reason than to ensure the best word of mouth advertising you can get. So, when somebody comes to your social site and sees that you have wonderful feedback from an event that you attended, or something that you have done or sold, it elevates your credibility in their minds. This advances the confidence people have in your products, as there are few endorsements more powerful than seeing a little bit of positive feedback from somebody else. So remember, always stay active, and be sure to leave many comments on the social sites of others so you can maximize feedback to your own site profile. MISTAKE #7
- Non “Attractive” Profile
To put it quite simply, what I mean by this is to make sure that you dot all your I’s and cross all your T’s. It’s very important to ensure that your social site is well put together. For example, on many social site outlets, you are able to create your own backgrounds or even your own custom layout. If that kind of flexibility is available to you, make sure that you use it wisely to keep the look of your pages clean and tasteful. Avoid the tendency to overdo it by having too much going on with your backgrounds or “busy” themes, and go for the uncluttered look (you might try “thinking Google” in this regard). Less clutter means more readability, which ultimately brings more attention to your social site and therefore, to you.
MISTAKE #8
- Too Much Going On
I have seen too many people that sign up for social sites for the purpose of marketing their business make one central and often-repeated mistake: they mix too many social site features with the business elements on their profile pages. If you are using your social site for marketing your business, then make sure to show your visitors that you are a business minded person. Don’t confuse your message by signing up for things like trivia games such as Mafia Wars or The Dating Game. You want to make sure that you are keeping your look as professional as possible, keeping in mind that people will clearly notice what it is that you do on your site. So, if you’re trying to market that you’re a lawyer a doctor, or a network-marketing expert, you want to be careful about overusing the non-essential social site features that you join. Again, you want to show that you are very professional, that this is your business, and that you excel in your field of expertise rather than social site pastimes or contests. Too much mixing of business and pleasure can serve to turn someone off immediately, so do your best to keep it simple and keep it all about business. If you want to take advantage of the entertainment aspects social sites offer, then consider having two separate social sites – one strictly for your business, and one for your personal use. But be careful, because some people may be of the type to research both your personal site and your business sites, so be cautious about what you post. Personally, I favor keeping everything that I do on my social sites completely business related.
MISTAKE #9
- Impersonal Communication
Sometimes, people will create a social site and just send bit quotes, back to back to back. A better approach is to ensure your communication is specific and related directly to you, such as pointing out something interesting you did during the day or something relevant about your business. You always want to be sure to reinforce the fact that there is a real person behind this social site and not just some robot creating random or irrelevant things. Make sure that your site gives your visitors a feeling of comfort, so that when they come to your site they see a real person doing real things. This helps to keep your site personable, and thus enhances the likelihood that people will want to return for updates about you on a regular basis.
MISTAKE #10
- Too Much Spam From Your Profile
Please take notice, boys and girls! Social networking sites are not designed to facilitate freely spamming people with your idea, your event or your business. Be careful to avoid the appearance of spam with your marketing efforts so that your visitors don’t get the wrong impression about what it is that you are trying to accomplish. Spam is a big turn off factor, as social networking sites are designed to create relationships and promote networking rather than becoming an overwhelming, 24-hour source of nothing more than commercials and sound bytes. Accordingly, your mission should be designed to create relationships, maximize networking opportunities, and foster new friendships, so that down the line your status updates and site activities will come to be positive things that people associate with about you. There is no need to add gimmicky lines, or any kind of false information, to bring more attention to your social site. In fact, these things only serve to leave a sense of distaste with your visitors, so work hard to set yourself apart from the gimmick masters and spam producers. You will find that your thoughtful and expressive site will be a refreshing break from the day-to-day avalanche of advertising spam people have to contend with. And that break may be just the one you need to put your business firmly at the front of your visitors’
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