The Right And Wrong Way To Use Social Media For Your Business

Social media has a massive reach. Billions of people, two billion to be exact, are on Facebook alone. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and many others exist, too, extending this reach even further. Businesses must use social media to boost their brands.

It’s estimated that 22% of the population uses Facebook – that’s 22% of the world.

Businesses targeting millennials will want to consider Twitter, on which 81% of millennials check daily.

The number of businesses doing social media the right way is much lower. I come across businesses that aren’t up-to-par with their social media game.

What Businesses Are Doing Wrong on Social Media

You can write a book on what businesses are doing wrong on social media, and by understanding what they’re doing wrong, you can correct these wrongs in your own business.

What are businesses doing wrong?

• Posting nonsense. No one cares what you ate for breakfast, unless you’re a fitness coach. If your business is posting just for the sake of posting and not educating, you’re doing it wrong.
• Not posting. You’re against nearly a quarter of the world on social media, so you need to be posting. If you start an account, post today and then again in two weeks, it’s going to be hard to get noticed.
• Not making posting a priority. Social media is either part of your marketing strategy or it’s not. You need to make posting a priority, and this means deciding what works best in your niche. You might need to post twice a day, or you may want to post five times a day, in either case, it needs to become part of your schedule.
• Ignoring followers. I know a local pizza joint that has a social media page that I cringe at every time I open it. The owner is a sweetheart, but if you say anything negative about her restaurant online, she will turn ugly very quickly. While I cringe, she shows that she cares for her business by not ignoring followers. Even negative comments should be responded to in business.
• Not using complaints to your advantage. Complaints will always happen – no one or business is perfect. When you have a complaint, make note of it and keep track of similar complaints. Social media gives your customers a voice, and if you’re not hearing their complaints and making your business better to correct these complaints, you’re doing it all wrong.

How to do social media in the right way

You’ll find companies like Option One, if you check out their Facebook page, respond to negative reviews via phone. This is great because it touches on the client’s concerns directly. I would like to see them also post a quick reply so others can see that they care in the comments, such as, “Hey, we just gave you a call. Let’s make this right.”

Now, a few other points to consider are:

• Reaching out to potential clients on social media
• Making sure the right social media channels are used
• Incorporating images into posts
• Varying content appropriately
• Sharing at the right times (it changes by platform)

There’s a lot that businesses are doing that’s wrong on social media, and with the right tweaks, they can have a much bigger impact on their audience.