Mistakes to Avoid When Promoting Your Small Business on Social Media

These days, enterprises of all sizes are actively using social media to their advantage. So, if your small business has yet to utilize the web’s most popular social platforms to their full potential, there’s no time like the present to rectify this error in judgment. Of course, this isn’t to say that all enterprises are equally successful when it comes to social media promotion. While some businesses have successfully built awareness through social platforms, others have seen very little in the way of increased attention for their respective brands. To help ensure that your small business’s forays into social media are fortuitous, take care to avoid the following blunders.

Refusing to Engage with Followers 

Follower engagement is among the most important parts of maintaining an active social media presence. One of the things that draws people to social media is the opportunity to directly engage with a wide assortment of brands, businesses and influencers. As such, whenever a follower sends a query, comment or concern your way, you’d do well to respond to them in a timely manner. Leaving someone hanging for days – or longer – is bound to give off the impression that you don’t value follower feedback and serve as an indication of your general approach to customer service. If a follower finds your lack of a timely response particularly bothersome, they may even drag your business on their personal account. Unsurprisingly, drawing the ire of an account with a sizable number of followers can have a host of undesirable consequences. 

To nip issues like this in the bud, respond to questions and comments that require replies within an hour or two if they’re posed during normal business hours. This will show your followers that you care about their input and provide expedient customer service. Timely replies will also make your account seem more approachable and are likely to encourage other followers to reach out whenever they have questions. 

Rarely Posting New Content 

It’s hard to keep followers engaged when you have no content to offer. Unfortunately, a fair number of small businesses fail to post new content on their respective social media accounts on anything resembling a consistent basis. The more sporadic your posts, the less likely you are to retain follower interest or attract new followers. While posting multiple updates per day may strike you as cumbersome, there’s virtually no point in being on social media if you’re not going to bother promoting your brand. 

As a general rule, try to post between one to five updates per day. Less than that is liable to make followers lose interest, while more than that is liable to annoy followers and get you muted or unfollowed. Furthermore, make sure your posts contain eye-catching images and contain information your followers are likely to find entertaining and/or useful.    

Treating Followers Impolitely 

Although being polite when promoting a business of any type may seem like a no-brainer, a disturbing number of enterprises conduct themselves in a glib, impolite fashion when engaging with social media followers. Since interacting with prospective patrons via social media is a very different experience than face-to-face interaction, some people regard courtesy as an afterthought and come off as rude, even when no real offense is intended. So, if you have a habit of being curt or impolite when not interacting with people in-person, you’d be wise to carefully read over every sentence you type before responding to comments and questions posed on social media. 

Never Giving Away Promotional Products 

Since giving away promotional products on social media can be a great way to bolster your follower numbers and build brand awareness, you won’t be doing yourself any favors by refusing to engage in product giveaways. Practical promotional products, like t-shirts, caps, totes and water bottles, are all items that your followers are likely to use throughout the course of their daily lives. Additionally, when they do, they’ll be providing your business with free advertising. 

You’d be hard-pressed to find an enterprise that isn’t trying to use the web’s most popular social platforms to its advantage. Not only are these outlets free and easy to use, they have the power to make scores of prospective customers aware of your business’s existence. Of course, not every foray into social media promotion is successful. If social media represents uncharted territory for your business, you’d do well to steer clear of the mistakes discussed above.