Do you need SEO help in Toronto?
Schedule a consultation with SEO Expert Charles Moffat
by emailing contactus@designseo.ca.
Consultations are $40 per hour.

Common Social Media Marketing Mistakes

An unfortunate consequence of people trying to do Social Media Marketing and being clueless of what they should be doing and not doing means they end up wasting a lot of time on mistakes.

1. Don’t Jump Into Social Media Marketing Without A Plan!

Most companies might have experienced this and you could be one of them. The story goes like this: you decide to join the social network, make your profiles, load it with info, put great stuff out there to attract attention and then disappear. Within weeks of your ‘super’ launch your page is converted into a barren land with followers wondering what they are doing there and some people seeking answers and getting no replies. Your company's social media presence soon becomes a big flop.

So the first step is to actually have a social media marketing plan.

The plan should be such that it should build on your presence and not let it dwindle. Any plan would need:
  • Time investment
  • Strategy and goals
  • Team for interaction

2. Spamming

Another mistake people make is to throw links on the internet on all the social networks. Why post irrelevant links? Spam never works.

What you need to do instead is build relevant content and have meaningful links. Don't post fake stuff either. Everything you post should actually be USEFUL. Posting free tips for example is a great way to make useful content.

eg. 10 Tips on What NOT to do when doing Social Media Marketing.

3. Multiple Profiles On Social Sites

This is another trend where a company has more than one profiles on sites like Facebook and Twitter – all of which link to the main website. For one thing, it is just plain wasteful to spread out your resources and efforts like that! Put your efforts in one direction and get people, real people, to your company.

Another common problem connected to having multiple profiles is people who connect with other people who are just looking for numbers - they have zero intention in becoming a customer and are essentially fake followers, and instead their primary goal is to get you to follow their company too, just for the sake of ego building numbers. However, there’s no point building loads of fake followers who really aren’t interested in your work and are simply connecting to build ‘following’. Having more numbers doesn't actually attract customers through popularity. That is a false perception.

Thus having multiple profiles in the effort to get more followers also doesn't work. It is just a waste of time.

4. Very Little Interaction

In many cases, profiles have updates but no participation in conversation. Lack of conversation with your clients and followers decreases value of your social presence and you don’t build on valuable relationships.

What you should be doing:

Post comments, questions, ask for feedback, have polls (formal or informal), answer questions from potential clients, turn your online presence into a way to find out more about your customers and what they want.

5. No Real Followers

This is a big mistake – keeping an active page with lot of info but no real followers. This means you don’t really have virtual support and weakens the basis of your social existence. To avoid this, it’s important to build a slow and steady network of real people.

Some companies arguably don't even need Social Media and thus don't need a Twitter or Facebook account. They only want them for the sake of ego, but once they have them they neglect to use them - or if they do use them, they are trying to sell something that most people only need 1 time and there is no point in following a company that sells 1 time use widgets.

6. Bookmarking Randomly

Social bookmarking is important and useful. But if you are bookmarking all sites with back-links to your website, with no real relevance (or useful content), then it’s not going to work well for your business. You will just be wasting your time.

Lets say for example you use the website StumbleUpon to bookmark things you like, but you are bookmarking parts of your website which are essentially useless and boring. There is no point bookmarking those pages because other people are never going to bookmark those pages either.

Instead what you should be doing is only bookmarking the pages that are interesting, fascinating and have the potential to go viral. Topics that are useful, fantastic and so forth.

In theory you could also bookmark big sales, as people could end up sharing / bookmarking those pages so share the sale with their friends.

7. Automated Posting of Links

Another mistake is automated posting of back-links to your website. Of course, automation eases the load on your manual efforts, but a structure is needed and randomness doesn’t pay. You only look like just – another – spamming site!

Spamming doesn't work and can even get your site banned / red-flagged by Google. It doesn't matter whether a human posts the spam or it is a computer doing it, it still doesn't work / looks suspicious enough for Google to give you a red flag.

8. Less Visibility due to Low Activity

This is an interlinked factor where you seem media shy! There are various profiles that are extremely careful in a bid to be less aggressive and hence, end up going unnoticed. It’s important to be active and visible.

What you should instead be doing is posting regularly. Daily or Weekly works best.

9. Not Spending Wisely

Social media marketing is an affordable platform which is its greatest charm. Yet, not spending wisely in the bargain is what should not happen. You may spend too much on social media ads but nothing on hiring an SEO/SMO company to do your SMO work. Isn't that a bad choice? Why not make a balance and use your money wisely.

It makes way more sense to hire someone who actually knows what they are doing to garner the best results.

10. Your Target Customers

The most important is to know your target audience. Aiming in the dark may seem like you are working very hard, but in the end, results will suffer!

Thus knowing your target, knowing how to best "hit your target", and learning from your failed attempts to gain customers from your target audience.

BONUS TIP

Never use social media in a disgraceful / greedy way with respect to comment on social issues / tragedy.

eg. Using a recent school shooting or deaths to try and sell your line of widgets.

Why the Kingsway Theatre Manager is a Social Marketing Moron

Awhile ago, a local Toronto actress (a minor celebrity) went to the Kingsway Theatre (located at 3030 Bloor Street West, Toronto) to see a film - and was singled out because she was dark skinned and she was asked to leave her backpack with staff.

However the backpack contained her phone and other valuables. It was ostensibly her purse.

Now imagine if you were a black man and you went to a movie theatre - and you were told you were not allowed to take your wallet in to the movie theatre. Meanwhile white men are walking by, getting let in with their wallets just fine.

That is basically how ridiculous their demands were. Nobody in their right mind is going to hand over their wallet, car keys, cellphone, purse or other valuables - whether they are stored in a backpack or not.

Plus why target only black people carrying backpacks?

So then the manager gets there. (He is also the owner.)

Now a smart manager would realize that not letting people into the movie theatre because they have a backpack is a ridiculous and stupid policy, because many young people these days use backpacks like they would purses and satchels. They are basically fashion accessories that are handy for carrying your valuables in.

The problem is that movie theatres want people to buy popcorn and soda pop - they make most of their money off selling food, not the movie tickets themselves. They don't want people sneaking in extra food or drinks.

The manager's logic behind the policy - and the targeting of only black people - suggests that he believes that only black people sneak in food and drinks. So he only enforces it for people he suspects are not following the rules - primarily by judging them by their skin colour as to who he thinks might be sneaking food in.

So to them having a no backpacks policy makes a bit of sense - but they don't have the legal right to search people's backpacks - because they are not police and they also do not have a warrant. They also legally should not be telling people to abandon their belongings with staff, who frankly are paid minimum wage and just as likely to steal your phone, wallet, etc. And if not staff, what is to stop other patrons of the movie theatre to just steal other people's backpacks?

So yes, the manager. Rui Pereira.

He gets there and he is the dumb fellow who created the whole no backpacks policy in the first place. So he doubles down on the policy and calls the police, claiming that a black woman is threatening him (which she was not).

The police get there, they basically apologize for the woman and explain that they get called there regularly because the manager is a moron who calls the police constantly whenever there is anything that his little brain cannot comprehend that requires more social skills.

So the young woman leaves and she posts about her experience on social media.

And it goes VIRAL.

Seriously, Rui Pereira should be paying her for all the free advertising the Kingsway Theatre got after the whole thing went crazy viral on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Lots of white supremacists started going to the movie theatre thanks to this incident - that is not a good thing!

It also caused a slew of interesting reviews on Google Maps.

Lots of people posted 1 star reviews, basically condemning the Kingsway Theatre and its moronic manager Rui Pereira.

So what does Rui Pereira do?

Instead of deleting the Google Maps listing (which is what he should have done), he doubled down again and posted responses to all the people leaving negative reviews. Some of his responses were longer.

Example:

"Response from the owner3 months ago
The truth is astounding! You and your back pack will be much happier some where else. Do not come back.

The Kingsway is a licensed BAR with a movie theatre in it. Signs are clearly displayed that indicate NO OUTSIDE FOOD or DRINKS. Signs also clearly state NO BACKPACKS or LARGE BAGS in the auditoriums. If you are not willing to follow the rules a ticket will not be sold to you. There are no arguments and no abuse of the staff.

ps you and google go f**K yourself."

And he didn't do this just once or twice. Oh no.

Of 82 reviews (as of April 19th 2017), he has posted 27 responses in which he more or less swears at people (and at Google).

Which brought on responses like the following:

a month ago-
Just by reading the owners responses to people, I will NEVER patronize this place. I feel sorry for people that work for him."

On the list of things not to do, arguing with the general public on the very public Google Maps' business reviews - let alone cussing at them - is definitely a big no no.

Rui Pereira, Racist Theatre Manager
I would not be surprised if a year from now Rui Pereira ends up burning the Kingsway Theatre down so he can collect the insurance money. Or sells the property to someone else.

Plus there is the subtle racism. He only invokes the no backpack policy for black people or other people he doesn't like. White people apparently walk in with backpacks, purses, satchels, etc and get in to the movie theatre just fine.

So clearly the policy is only there so that Rui Pereira can openly discriminate against black people.

Judging by the reviews Rui Pereira also hates people in wheelchairs. The old theatre isn't particularly wheelchair friendly and according to at least 1 review he and his staff are deliberately rude to people in wheelchairs.

And when people social media learn that, they share it. Hence why this story went viral.

THE VIRAL MARKETING LESSON

In theory, if a less reputable (and highly unethical) company wanted to promote themselves and get lots of free press in the media and social media they could do the following:

#1. Hire a really racist prick to be the manager.

#2. Allow the racist manager to make various policies that allows him to discriminate / segregate people at his/her leisure.

#3. Set up a situation in which a minor celebrity goes to the business and is treated rudely by the racist prick manager.

#4. The celebrity then tweets on Twitter or posts on Facebook, and it goes crazy viral.

#5. The owner of the company investigates and fires the manager - for damaging the companies reputation. The owner then issues a public apology for ever hiring that manager in the first place, but by that point the company's infamy has already gone viral, and there is a 2nd viral wave when people learn the manager has been fired.

So yes. That would be highly unethical for a company to do, but the resulting infamy equals free marketing. Only the most unscrupulous and desperate of companies would pull that kind of nonsense.

Lets take for example United Airlines.

This is rather recent news, but the effect is similar.

What happened was (in case you haven't heard about this case) United Airlines sold out all the seats on a place and decided that they needed more seats so they could transfer more staff to a different location.

So they asked for volunteers to give up their seats and take a different flight later.

Nobody volunteered.

So instead they picked a random Asian man (a doctor who needed to be at a certain city by Monday so he could perform surgery) and decided to forcibly remove him from his seat. They physically assaulted him and dragged him from his seat because he refused to move, explaining that he had patients to get to.

So they dislocated his jaw, broke two of his teeth, gave him a concussion, and numerous other injuries.

He is now suing United Airlines for having employees assault him and for their idiotic policy of forcing people off a plane for no good reason.

He will no doubt win the lawsuit. I estimate he will get at least $4 million USD.

If United Airlines' lawyers are smart they will try to settle out of court, because if the judge decides the amount then the judge can also add Punitive Damages as an extra punishment to the airline.

To make matters worse, the CEO of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz, claimed that the Asian passenger was belligerent and violent - which was not true, as the whole incident was caught on video. That compounded problems and Oscar Munoz later had to backtrack on that, during which he admitted culpability (in legal terms this is like admitting that the company did something illegal and is guilty).

So that makes the lawsuit so much easier now. The video. The witnesses. Company staff who say they were just following orders. The CEO who tried to blame the victim and was proven he was a big fat liar.

All of this blew up in the media and on social media.

Let alone the stock price, which dropped over $10 in value, and even after posting strong earnings for the past quarter is still down $6 compared to where it was before the huge scandal.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM KINGSWAY THEATRE + UNITED AIRLINES?

#1. Don't insult your customers (past or present or future) on social media websites.

#2. Don't do it in emails either, as they can later get leaked to the press / social media.

#3. If your company has a policy that is bad for the company's public image, scrap the policy because it is bad for business overall.

#4. Fire all your staff who do racist/sexist stuff. Rui Pereira cannot be fired because he is the owner, but the idiot who picked the Asian doctor as a good person to be removed from the plane should definitely be fired.

#5. Do not have any policy that calls for assaulting customers and making the company open to lawsuits.

#6. When people post tonnes of negative reviews on Google Maps because you did something wrong, don't argue with them. Just delete the listing.

#7. The same goes with a Twitter account, Facebook page, etc that becomes bogged down by bad press. In those cases the person managing the account can also just deactivate it (and it can later be re-activated).

#8. Make a Plan, hire a social media consultant for all your online reputation management. Or in the case of a big scandal, hire a Public Relations consultant.

#9. Do not interact with the general public during a reputation scandal unless you absolutely have to. No Tweets is good Tweets.

#10. Learn from other people's social media marketing mistakes. A scandal can be turned into an opportunity if the company chooses to Do the Right Thing. If they do not, it only makes the scandal worse and they end up paying more for it in the long run.
If you need SEO, SEM or SMO help in Toronto then you need to contact designSEO.ca
Get started by emailing contactus@designseo.ca.
Consultations are $40 per hour.

SEO Archive

Recommended Reading