Even if your company is 100 years old, and you had to be drug kicking and screaming into the new age of marketing, you have to know that social media is a major player in marketing. The problem is, many CEO’s and high-ranking do not understand the concept of marketing on social media.
In the past, a well-placed magazine ad, a prime-time commercial, or a few freebies announced on the radio was the marketing plan. In its day that was what was needed and you knew very soon if your marketing was working or not. In that day and age, your company was the center of your universe and marketing was used to create a challenge to any competitor that dared to take you on. Those days are gone.
The internet and social media is king
Today, everyone reaches for their cell phone, tablet, or computer for information and news, and to communicate with other people. Everyone has a website. People are more likely to email you a question rather than call you. Your website tells the consumer a lot about you. So you have to send the right message. Below, we are going to address 5 mistakes companies make while trying to utilize social media as a marketing platform.
Denny Manufacturing is an industry leader who can help you get started.
Mistake number 1
Not having a plan of action
Before you even plug in the computer, you need a plan of action. If you think just making website and advertising it on particular platforms is all you need to do, you are dead wrong.
Here are some things to consider, while making your plan of action
● What are you trying to accomplish?
○ Do you just want to get more followers so your company will be more popular?
○ Do you want to increase web traffic or web sales? There is a difference.
○ Who is your target audience?
■ This tells you which social media platform to use.
○ Who will be monitoring the website?
○ How will you keep people coming back to your site?
○ How many many-hours are you willing to invest in your site?
○ How long will you give an idea online before you call it a dud and pull it?
These things are important. Middle-aged and older adults use Facebook. It used to be the “in” thing for teens but as soon as mom and dad learned to use it, they took off. Snap-Cat, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and a few others are where you are going to find the younger folks, So if you are trying to get young people to buy an app, that is where you would go. If you are trying to interest people in an alarm system, Facebook is a better place.
Your website should be actively monitored and have cool things on it to keep people coming back and to ensure people will share it.
Mistake number two
Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/en/woman-portrait-hair-face-look-1615242/
Trying to slide past a mistake. Someone has posted something negative on your site. Most of the time the webmaster:
● Apologizes immediately
● Offers a lame excuse
● Tells the client to call the office and speak to customer service
None of these things makes the customer happy, or instills confidence in your brand. Instead, you should grab this opportunity. Find out exactly what they were doing and exactly how the product failed them. Then you can discover if they did something wrong and point out the error to them. Before you finish, apologize even if your product was not at fault with “I’m sorry you had a bad experience.” Then offer to speak further with them through customer service if they need help.
Don’t forget to ask the client what they think you should do differently. This gives them the chance to contribute and turn a negative to a positive.
Mistake number 3
Photo credit:Johnhain
Never show fear! You have lines and lines of positive remarks on a post you put up and then an ugly, nasty, name-calling pops up right in the middle of it. You do not what your bosses to see that. You do not want your customers to see that. But it is there. Fight the urge to press delete. You can bet the person who posted it will come back to see what response he got and he will say something, then others will join in. You can believe some people saw it and they are waiting to see how you will handle it.
Note: you have an absolute right to post a note that profanity and public verbal attacks will be deleted. At that point, delete the post, but post a note that reads, “to Ihavenofiter@gmail.com” your message was received. Due to the language in the post, it had to be removed, but if you will contact me at xxx@gmail.com, I will be happy to see if we can help you resolve this issue.
You do not look afraid and you show your other clients that you are a company of principle.
Maintaining a website takes a little effort, but when you consider the massive number of potential clients you could have, it is totally worth it. Simply keep it interesting, honest and in good taste, and it will be a winner in your marketing plans.