Do These Common B2B Social Media Mistakes Put You With Good Company?

I recently read an article on Business Insider’s website, “16 Social-Media Mistakes You May Be Making.” As a social media manager, I pretty much live 24/7/365 in the social media world. Initially, I wanted to read this article for one (selfish) reason: I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making any of these mistakes. However, after reading it, I changed my point-of-view.

It turns out that the 16 “mistakes” listed in the BI article were real “complaints” made by real people. A consultant posted the following question on LinkedIn:

What are the biggest mistakes that you find small-business leaders make when using social media?

97 people (which I personally think is too small of a sample) responded to this question, and the author of the article lists the most common answers. The result is a list which provides some very powerful advice for businesses - especially those which may be just starting out with using social media as part of their marketing strategies.

Instead of focusing on the “mistakes” which are listed in this article as negatives, it may help you to view them as potential learning experiences. What good are complaints unless they are acknowledged and dealt with appropriately, right? It seems with so many people complaining about the same issues, then many of these social media mistakes made by businesses must be quite common.

Now, I’m not one who condones bad behavior on social media, especially by businesses. On the other hand, I do support the notion of learning from mistakes. In this case, when businesses can learn by proxy, then they (and their social media followers) benefit.

Are you wondering which social media mistakes made this list? These are a few that should be on every business’ “must-never-do” list:

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1) Too much talking and not enough listening

No one wants to hear you only talk about yourself all the time. Listening allows you to learn what your audience really wants and needs, and whether your business can meet their expectations. Your clients and potential clients would much rather do business with a brand that listens and engages with them online.

2) Too much self-promotion

This goes hand-in-hand with the first “mistake.” It’s probably true that you have taken your business online as a way of increasing your brand’s awareness and reaching more people. You must work towards achieving balance though. When you’re only talking about yourself and/or only blasting out your own content, you’re going to lose a lot of followers.

3) Jumping on the social media bandwagon just because everyone else is

Social media does work well for many businesses, but not for every business. If you’re considering social media for your business, you must create and adhere to a rock-solid social media strategy. So many businesses start out with great momentum on their social media accounts, but fail to maintain their initial enthusiasm and pace. Using social media as a business is not something you can do aimlessly or haphazardly. Rather, it requires commitment and dedication - not to mention a healthy dose of creativity.

Over to you

Has your business made any of these common social media mistakes? Not to worry. As you know now, many other businesses make them and keep moving forward. As long as you learn from your mistakes and start taking action, you should also be able to move on, and be a little wiser from your experience.

Do you have any stories to share? I’d love to hear them…feel free to leave a comment below!

* I originally wrote a version of this article for Social Media Club, and have republished it with their permission. Click here to view the original.

Featured image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net