Social Media Mistakes Small Businesses Need to Avoid

In this day and age, the biggest social media mistake a small business can make is not having any social media accounts. Engaging with your customer base is essential. You also need to have a space where people can recommend you or feel free to complain (which is a great way to improve your product or service).

These days, people feel more comfortable dealing with businesses who have an online presence. But there are certain social media mistakes that small businesses tend to make which are easy to avoid.

Not Posting Enough Or Posting Too Much

Having a Facebook and Twitter account isn’t enough. You also need to be active on these accounts. But, of course, not too active. You want your customers to notice your presence, but you don’t want to flood their timelines with nonsense 24/7. So, it’s a good idea to schedule your posts and tweets. Try Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday and Thursday (depending on how active you want to be).

Ignoring Or Deleting Complaints

Yes, it doesn’t look good having people write negative comments on your wall or tweet criticisms at you. But don’t delete these or ignore these. Take them as opportunities to engage with your customer base. Show them that you are willing to take their issues seriously and address them as soon as you can. Apologise for the inconvenience and request their contact details. And then, obviously, contact them.

Posting Boring Content

You don’t want to be unfollowed. It’s that simple. So try to post content that’s valuable to your customers. Give them information on sales and discounts or post regular competitions that get them active on your social media page. It may also do some good to add a human touch with a joke or two and a meme once in a while. But that depends on the kind of business you run. 

As a small business without a large marketing budget, social media can be a huge asset. But you have to use it in the right way. Avoid these mistakes and you’ll find that running successful social media accounts is not that difficult.

The content in this article was provided by Boston City Campus & Business College, which provides public relations courses among others.