4 Social Media Tactics You Should Avoid
Since the emergence of social media, it has become easier to drive your traffic and sales, but are you truthfully seeing an increase in your traffic and sales? Or, is it an optical illusion? What are you actually seeing? If you’re using tactics that are outdated and obsolete, it might appear that you’re making progress, when you’re really not making any effective changes.
If you want to make sure you DO cause change, try to avoid using these tactics.
Just because you’re online a lot, doesn’t mean your followers are. Writing all the time doesn’t suit anyone since many of your followers will likely miss these frequent messages. If you need to, you can use free, third party tools that will show you the optimum time for posting. Not only will it analyze your base users, it can tell you the days and times you should be posting to engage your followers the most.
Once you’ve planned for the optimal times to post, signing up to schedule your posts with sites like Buffer or HootSuite is easy. If you’re having trouble scheduling Facebook posts, use the Fan page and click the clock icon to schedule your post.
2. Selling Direct
If you’re not offering your visitors a sale or a discount, posting links and telling your followers to buy something you’re selling isn’t going to do much for you. Even though you have a large following, you need to resist the urge to inundate your followers with what you’re selling.
Instead, you need to funnel the fans you already have. Collect information that will help you stay in touch with them, such as email or phone number, and then offer your products or services via these methods.
If you continue to offer continuously on your main social media site, soon your followers will stop visiting you, because they don’t want to be pitched too every time they come to see you.
The reason this theory works is thanks to ‘micro commitments’. Essentially, you get your audience to agree to small things every now and then, and finally, once you’ve collected all those emails, you ask them to make a purchase. In this situation, they are more likely to say yes.
Another popular tactic that I see more frequently these days is purchasing likes and followers for your social media sites. Trust me when I say it’s simply not worth it. Before, sites were ranked based on how many unique followers they have. Now, metrics for these sites are more intelligent, meaning that they can analyze your list of friends, and see who really visits you and who never even logs in. By ranking your traffic this way, it’s clear to see that purchasing large amounts of one times likes and follows simply isn’t worth it in the end.
If you really want to see your numbers grow in this area, you need to review the tactics of your competitors. Observe what kinds of posts are helping them get likes and shares and try to emulate their strategy. Alter it to fit your target audience and update it as necessary.
If the only reason you’re considering expanding to social media is to increase your brand awareness and traffic; including sales, then stop while you’re ahead. If you only wish to serve yourself and your message by signing up for social media, your followers can tell, and they are going to unfollow you for it.
Being online and posting makes you transparent with your intentions. If all you ever do is post about yourself and how wonderful your company is, eventually, no one will care. The truth is that you need to be interested not interesting.
Once you begin to review your own wall, share others content and answer questions for your followers, people will begin to follow you loyally. If you choose to serve the greater good, they’ll respond to you kindly in return. Make sure that you’re helping out and answering questions, sharing content from all over and share tips from within your industry.
Can you think of any other tactics that people should avoid? Share below!
