Making sure you avoid the pitfalls of social media

It’s hard to believe, but social media’s been with us since the late 70’s when it was possible to post articles to Newsgroups. In 1980, CompuServe introduced the first online chat option and by the time the early 90’s arrived around 17 million users regularly accessed 60,000 Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). 

As it sounds, a BBS is simply the digital equivalent of a cork-board where users can post a question in the hope that someone else will post a reply and, whilst visiting the BBS, they can look for questions that they can use their skills and knowledge to answer. 

The similarities and parallels to today’s social media sites are obvious, although the major differences are the number of users and the speed of response. 

Then, in 1997 Six Degrees introduced personal profiles and “friends”, and began to resemble the social media sites that we are familiar with today.  

2003 saw the launch of Myspace, the first “mass market” social media platform, and LinkedIn - focusing on the Business to Business marketplace and in 2006 both Facebook and Twitter were launched and the floodgates were opened.

Today, Facebook has over 2 billion regular users and a question posted today is likely to be answered within minutes, whereas an answer to a question on a BBS could take days, if not weeks, and content was limited to text and occasionally a few low-resolution images.

So how do you make the most of your social media presence to grow and attract clients? Whilst social media can be an amazing place to learn, discover and reach an unparalleled audience compared to ever before, there are some pitfalls you should avoid.

Wrong social media platform

As the popularity of social media platforms exploded, helped by the parallel development of Smartphones and mobile web access, more and more people jumped onboard and now there are 20 top social media platforms and about 210 less popular, from Academia.edu to Zoo.gr. 

It’s easy to spot a potential opportunity and jump onboard. But what if nobody’s listening? You waste time (and money) and could easily become disillusioned when the results fail to match expectations. 

It’s no different to placing an advert in The Sun newspaper (still the most distributed newspaper in the UK) when your audience read The Times. The difference being that yesterday’s Sun is tomorrow's recycled paper but last year’s abandoned social media activity is today’s search results on Google - making you look uncaring as abandoned updates and unanswered questions are there to influence the mindset of potential clients

Wrong content posted

It’s too easy to post content that’s irrelevant, unnecessary or insensitive or just too inward looking. A lot of businesses post content that’s all ‘me, me, me’ about services provided, deals offered, and the latest news about the office dog. 

These might be of interest to you but of little interest to fans/followers etc. Look to the 80/20 rule where 20 per cent of your updates are about you and 80 per cent are of more general interest. This will help attract new connections and keep existing followers interested.

Newsjacking (taking news stories relevant to your business sector and making use of them) provides a great way to find things to talk about but don’t use disasters, unless you are demonstrating support, and be very careful when using humour because one person’s joke can easily be the cause of another’s offence.

Wrong people posting

Allowing other people to post on your behalf sounds great but can be dangerous if the appropriate controls are not in place. 

You need to ensure that your contracts of employment include relevant sections on what can and can’t be shared and the implications of breaching, and if outsourcing your social media, similar protections need to be in place.

There are challenges that face a business in today’s technology and communication driven marketplace. The main question being simply “which social media sites should I use?”

Caution should be exercised because so many businesses have read about the “latest”, “greatest” ideas and tied themselves to new platforms, invested time (and in some cases money), and found that the results have not met expectations.