Basic Blunders That Can Doom a Social Media Campaign
There are countless reasons for social media marketing to be a key component of your online visibility efforts. Compared with other approaches, it can be a cost effective and natural way to engage with potential clients. As a general rule, it’s easier for existing and potential clients to find you through social media than through search engines, and an effective social media campaign can be the perfect platform for positive feedback and reviews from satisfied clients. A solid social media presence can help build traffic to your website and even boost your rankings with search engines.
But there are some critical mistakes to avoid when creating a social media presence, errors that likely will have a negative impact on your follower base and, ultimately, on your client base. Here are some of the most fundamental social media marketing errors:
- Winging it – As with any component of your business, you should have a detailed plan for your social media marketing. Know what your goals are, who your target audience is, who will be handling the social media efforts, the specific strategies you will employ, and how much time and money you plan to spend. Put together a comprehensive social media marketing plan and follow it.
- The shotgun approach – Don’t try to be all things to all people. Know who your target market is and what they need. The more focused your social media marketing is, the more effective it will be and the higher your return on investment.
- Failing to properly manage negative feedback or comments – Here’s the reality: it’s going to happen. You can do everything by the book, work hard for your clients, and still, someone will be unhappy… or less than enthusiastic. You need to be prepared by having a structure to respond—it’s often most effective to have a specific person assigned to handle all such instances. Some of the specifics will vary from comment to comment, but here are a few basics:
- Don’t ignore it — engage with the person as soon as possible.
- Don’t panic.
- Don’t make it personal.
- Don’t rush to apologize. While an apology can foster goodwill, most prospective clients will care less about an apology than they will an indication that the situation was an anomaly, or that you’ve taken steps to address the issue.
- Using your social media posts as endless online billboards – Obviously, one of the primary reasons for using social media platforms is to advertise and promote your practice, but do it subtly. If every post comes off as a ham-fisted promotion, people will quickly start to avoid you.
- Forgetting that it’s “social” media – That’s another way of saying that you need to maintain a regular presence. It’s not enough to simply update your profile on a periodic basis. You need to be part of the conversation, or it will be difficult to build any type of relationships.
- Spamming – Social media is first and foremost a conversation. Don’t fill your posts with links to your website or other sites. People will know where and how to find you.
- Inflating your follower base – Everybody wants to have a lot of followers on social media, but the mere number is less important than your engagement with followers. Don’t buy followers, and don’t bring fake followers in with promotional gimmicks. If someone isn’t really a follower, they won’t help your campaign.
- Continuing to play the same song… over and over – Don’t use your social media outlets to repeatedly post the same content. While you can have a central theme, you need to diversify your posts or people will get bored. Along the same lines, don’t post content simply for the sake of posting content. We know—new content on a regular basis is a good thing. But it needs to be worthwhile, so that your followers don’t feel that their time is being wasted.
At GetLegal, we have decades of experience providing comprehensive digital marketing services and products to attorney and law firms nationwide. We offer a wide range of products and services, including website development, search engine optimization, social media campaigns, reputation management, directory listings, customized content, and full video production capabilities. To take your digital marketing to the next level, go to www.getlegal.com or call 1-817-359-7077.
