We all know by now that “number of Likes” is not a business metric that any CEO (including myself) sees as valuable.
But most CEOs fall into the category of not understanding the value of social media as a whole, forget about individual SM platforms or networks. I personally don’t see the number of “likes” of a brand’s Facebook Page as a valid measurement because the act of “liking” a business or organization is a one-time transaction. What IS extremely valuable, however, is the level of engagement that occurs between the fan and the brand (and vice versa), as well as the sharing of a businesses’ content between a fan and that fan’s own network(s) of friends.
And that’s just on Facebook. What about the dozens of other social media platforms, networks, opinion sites, directories, blogs and niche networks across the Internet?
According to eMarketer, only 13% of marketers feel they are “very effective” at measuring social media efforts. There’s an obvious reason for that!
I come across businesses each and every day that are doing everything wrong with social media. Literally, everything.
Here are my Top 10 Social Media Do-Not’s:
(1) Do not assume that you can hire a few college kids as interns to manage your social media marketing initiative because “they’re young and that social stuff is second nature to them”. Just because they can post frat photos doesn’t qualify them to manage a crucial piece of your organization’s online marketing.
(2) Along the same lines, don’t add customer response on Facebook and Twitter to your receptionist’s plate.
(3) Me, me, me. Please don’t publish self-promotional posts more than 15% of the time. How would you speak to a person standing in front of you? If you talk about yourself the whole time, they will walk away. The same holds true on social.
(4) Don’t engage on social media without a comprehensive strategy in place.
(5) Part of that strategy, from a branding perspective, should be to ensure consistency across all platforms. Don’t use the template backgrounds that come with Twitter, or forget to upload a Cover image to your Facebook Page, or leave your logo blank on your LinkedIn company profile.
(6) If part of your strategy, at the onset, is to publicly thank every follower on Twitter, do us a favor and don’t use a stock response for every person. Be sincere and authentic, or don’t include this as part of your strategy. Along these lines, be authentic in everything you do on social media! Don’t use robotic responses like all of those customer service reps who read from a script when you call with a question or complaint. It’s just an impersonal turn-off!
(7) Don’t begin a social media marketing or management initiative without the ability to monitor and report on everything! You wouldn’t run a print ad without a source code or landing page to measure efficacy. The same is necessary in social to measure ROI.
(8) If something is not working on social media, don’t abandon it. Either take down the group, listing, profile, etc. or figure out via your reporting insights what the problem is and tweak it until you get it right.
(9) If you find complaints about your business online, don’t let them sit out there unresolved for potential customers to see (and derive that you just don’t care). And when you do respond, don’t do so in an aggressive or accusatory manner.
(10) Don’t look at social media as an afterthought, or something that you can focus on once in a while. Success in social media requires daily monitoring and management – whether you’re using it for customer engagement, online reputation management, online marketing, reporting or all of the above.
Now that you know what not to do, here’s what you absolutely must do in social media.
(1) If you don’t already have internal expertise, hire a social media coach / consultant – after doing your own due diligence, of course – to train your entire team. Social media should include input from everyone, from the CEO to your marketing team and customer service department.
(2) If you do not have internal resources and have decided that your business would be better served by outsourcing social media to a specialized firm, hire one but don’t expect them to work on an island. If the team is representing your brand and engaging with your customers, the relationship must be full of checks and balances, including social media policy (see #4).
(3) Develop a social media marketing, management and measurement (the 3 M’s) strategy that:
a.aligns with current and future business objectives
b.demonstrates the value of your social media program (ROI)
c.provides the level of insight that enables ongoing optimization for maximum impact.
(4) For those organizations in the finance, legal, healthcare / medical, or technology industries, it is highly advisable to have a social media compliance policy drafted – not only for employees but also for any social media related vendor being contracted. In many cases, it is a legal requirement.
