Social media marketing is hot.

It’s the biggest buzz in marketing at the moment with every business looking to try its hand at it. Trying is well and good – but how do you avoid making mistakes and hence optimising results during that process?

Here’s a list of the top 9 social media marketing sins to watch out for.

Social Media Marketing Sin #1 - Not thinking before speaking:
In the online social media world, almost every conversation is transparent – that’s one of the beauties of social media marketing as a marketing and communications tool. However, the flip side is – whatever you publish will be remembered, publicised and possible held against you.

Add to that the real time nature of social media, there’s a real dangerof speaking before thinking. For companies, this can lead to damaging consequences – you may unwittingly anger your audience, publish inaccurate information or state opinions that undermine the company’s values and brands.

Social Media Marketing Sin #2- Lacking a plan and focus
The danger of buzz is that businesses jump to leverage the new kid on the block without really understanding what they want to achieve with social media marketing. Too often, businessesget involved simply because others are doing it.

Any marketing tactic should always start with business objective – start there and decide if social media is the right route to proceed with. Once you have defined your objectives and plans for social media marketing( is it promotion, online reputation management, customer communications?), you can work on the specific social media initiatives –this is far more effective than using a scatter gun approach.

There is a difference in wanting to test what social media marketing can do for your businessversus not having a plan and trying everything and anything randomly. It’s a waste of resource.

Social Media Marketing Sin #3 – Not Listening
A key purpose of social media isunderstanding your customers– you can be part of the conversation or just a fly on the wall. Understanding customers actually starts with listening. It pays to listen to listen to the discussions and conversations your consumers are having in social media networksbefore jumping in.

Understand what your target audience and influencers are concerned about as well as the topics that they care about. Listening provides insight to what's interesting and what’s not to your potential and existing customers. This will help establish a better flow of conversation when you start with social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing Sin #4 – Not being truthful
There’s a saying – fake it until you make it.

Well, that perspective leads to one of the biggest sins in social media marketing – not being truthful. This is a sure fire way to turn people off the company and its messages. There were companies that led users to believe that their blogs were created by brand evangelists and supporters when they were actually authored by employees or PR agencies. Such acts of manipulation will always be found out. And it’s a turn off!This isextended to all areas within social media. So when in doubt, just be upfront and honest.

Social Media Marketing Sin #5 – Letting Social Media Go Alone
While social media marketing is relatively new, it should not be cornered off for “experiments” or planning and implementation from the rest of your marketing activities be it PR, CRM or SEO.

Letting social media go alone would make it harder for social media campaign to succeed. A good social media campaign ( think - Australia’s Queenland govt’s The best job in the world) requires all the different elements of marketing to come together. Integrating social media marketing intothe broader marketing mix would enhance the opportunity of success. Conversely, lack ofintegration will increase the chances of failing.

Social Media Marketing Sin #6 – Going for the hard sell
It’s hard to break the traditional mould of selling and marketing. However, a hard sales tactic doesn’t quite fit or work in a social environment. Remember: Nobody likes unsolicited sales messages – few people think an endless streams of conversations that sound like commercialsas beinginteresting. Constantly barraging users with sales messages will lead to posts being ignored or worse, viewed as spam. Be more subtle in the approach, provide information that will influence or help people make purchase decisions.

Social Media Marketing Sin #7 – Be persuaded that ROI does not matter
There’s no 3 letters that divide marketers more when it comes to social media marketing. There are online marketers who believe that you cannot put a value on relationship and in essence, social media marketing.

However, the truth is, all investments, social media marketing or otherwise, must produce a tangible result to the bottom line and a return to investment. ROI would be easier to calculate if there is a proper plan, objective, KPIs and monitoring defined before starting the social media campaign. The results may not be immediate but do not be persuaded that ROI does not matter.

Social Media Marketing Sin #8 – Lacking consistency in messaging
Companies participate in different social media websites. It is also not unusual to find the same users on different social media websites. Similar to a brand building exercise, companies build their image through the messages made throughsocial networkingsites. There needs to be consistency in messages portraying the company, its brand and its values so that the company maintains its identity. Conflicting messages may confuse users and ruin a company’s credibility.

Social Media Marketing Sin #9 – Putting all eggs into the social media basket
Most companies are not built with 1 single marketing tactic and it would be simply nave for any company to put all their eggs into the social media marketing basket. It is not necessary to abandon other marketing strategies and campaigns that have served the company well.

Treat social media as another channel to promote your business, engage your customers or solicit feedback. Think about how social media can add on to the business and the total marketing mix – not about it can completely replace how you currently market.

For further information please contact:
Chloe Lim
aoom – art of online marketing – consultancy
Tel: 1300 916 154
Email: chloe.lim@aoom.com.au

About aoom consultancy
aoom – art of online marketing – consultancy is a specialised online marketing consultancy dedicated to help businesses establish and optimise their online presence through creative online marketing strategies and tactics.

aoom is a full service online marketing consultancy offering expertise from high level marketing strategy through to hands-on implementation across a range of online marketing services including affiliate marketing, CRM, search engine marketing, social media marketing to website usability. aoom consultancy balances the art of marketing with the science of online to drive the best online results for businesses.