Do you pass the mom test?

Social media is still relatively new to many marketers, but it has definitely changed the way companies communicate with their prospects and customers. While there is always some stigma to telling people that they are using social media wrong, the following tactics will not win you friends or influence people. And your prospects and customers won’t like it either.

Remember that social media takes place in full view of the public, so by following some of these questionable activities, you can risk alienating followers.

1. All Link and No Context

It is fine to send @replies on Twitter to potentially interested people, but make sure you send something of value. If you send a link only, with no context, people won’t click the link. There is plenty of spam on social media platforms, so don’t get lumped in with the spammers.

2. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

If you discover people that you think might be interested in your products or services and you send them an @reply on Twitter, try to vary or personalize the message a bit. Many people will click over to your Twitter profile page before following or engaging back, and they won’t respond if they see an entire page of the exact same tweet to multiple people.

3. Is This a Bad Time?

Social media as a marketing and engagement channel needs to be targeted from a time stand point, as well as targeting the right audience with the right message. Share at various times of day to determine the best ones to share your content. Consider a global audience too. Posting content at times when your primary audience is asleep will not generate any traction for your messages.

4. Hello My Name is

It is called social media because people and companies are expected to be social. Follow basic rules of conversation and be polite, including introducing yourself or your company. Contacting someone on a social platform with an offer when there is no established relationship is sure-fire way to get no response.

5. You Can Count on Me

Every social media platform has way too many updates for every one of your followers to see, click, read and take action on all of them. So many in fact, that the number of updates per second has even increased since I started typing this sentence. It is important to build followings that are much larger than your targeted audience, because most won’t see your posts. And this doesn’t even take into account things like Facebook algorithms, where that platform doesn’t even show all updates to your fans. Don’t count on any more than a small percentage of fans and followers seeing any individual message.

6. Have I Got A Deal for You

There has been plenty of healthy debate about whether it is okay to sell on social media platforms. While surveyed consumers have said that they follow brands to get discounts and special offers, hard sales would get tiresome. Companies need to provide value to their followers and fans in exchange for their attention. If all you do is pitch your products and offer deals, people will tune you out and label you forever as a fast-talking, snake oil salesman.

7. He Said, She Said

Social media is not one big hug where everyone stands around the campfire singing songs, but you are still better off focusing on the positive aspects of what you can provide. Negativity may succeed in politics, but if you spend all your time bad mouthing your competitors on your social media, you risk two results. The first is loss of your followers attention, but the second is driving potential customers to your competitors. Do you want them to ask the question, “Hmm, they spend so much time trying to knock these guys down, let me go see what they are all about?”

8. Blogging the News

A blog can be many things, including a place to share company news. Nobody really wants to read a press release on a company blog. I am surprised at the number of companies who still do this. There is a place for press releases, and it’s called a newsroom. And there are even lots of examples of innovative newsrooms, but a blog is about sharing company thought leadership, providing valuable educational content to readers, and improving search results by answering questions customers and prospects are asking in their search engines. A press release doesn’t do any of that, and you won’t gain any readership of your company blog by posting them on it.

9. Ignoring the Inbox

Many people prefer getting their company updates on social platforms, rather than via email, but the majority of business communications are still happenin’ in the inbox. It will change as more digital natives enter the workforce, but it hasn’t yet. If you don’t support your remarkable and educational content by also sharing it with prospects by email, you are missing a huge opportunity to gain their attention.

10. Have Fun, but Share with Your Mom

There is a great sense of online propriety that is really appropriate for business social media and that’s the mom test. Sometimes when trying to be too creative or too cute, you cross the line in a way that is not appropriate for your customers. There be may some industries where there is no line, but for most of us, if you are sharing things online that you wouldn’t share with your mom, it won’t connect with your prospects and customers.

What are some other sure-fire ways to fail with social media? But if you looking for ways to succeed and present your business in the best possible light, follow some of these basics of social media etiquette. And make your mom proud too.

Tags: engagement, Social Media, social media engagement, social media strategy