A Few Good And Bad Social Media Practices

I was reading through the questions on LinkedIn the other day and thought this was an interesting Social Media practices question…

“What are the basic mistakes small businesses make with social media?”

When I got done answering the question, it occurred top me that you might want to know the answer to this one too.  So here goes…

1. Not being consistent with your message across the board. If you stay consistent on all of your social media networks – using the same or similar profile photo, your USP is the same and your about me is consistent, you will eventually become instantly recognizable and your audience will know who you are and what you do whenever and where ever they see you. That’s what you want. You are your brand

and the more consistent you are the quicker you will become known as an expert in your niche. 

2. Not being there every day. Out of site, out of mind. I recently took a 10 day trip to the NAMS online business conference in Atlanta, GA,  then on to co-host a live WordPress Workshop in Jacksonville, FL.  It was an incredible journey for me.  I met so many awesome people who work online, many very successful and some just getting started. I reconnected with old friends and met so many new ones. 

I had intended to stay on top of my social media every day, but after a few days my computer started giving me problems. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get online for several days.  I noticed that on the day after I stopped popping in and out of social media and engaging with my community, my site visits started going down.  As soon as I got back and started engaging on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, they went right back up again. You must be there very day. Even though my community loves me, they have busy lives and there are lots of shiny objects all around to pull their attention away.

3. Not being YOU. Don’t try to be like someone else. It doesn’t take long to figure out the blow-hards. People want to get to know you. Not a persona. We want to do business with honest, trustworthy folks. Just be you.  It’s only natural to try to put your most polished professional face on, however, when you start

communicating with others just as you are, that’s when the magic happens.  It becomes easier to write, talk to people on social media and people really start to respond to you and your message.

4. Not enough engagement and interaction and too darn much blasting links to your offers. You can and must promote every day, but you should be doing a lot less promotion and more engagement.

5. Not giving it enough time. Patience is a virtue. I guess you’ve heard that one, huh? Social media doesn’t give instant gratification. You have to be interesting and engaging. Offer solutions and help. People will start paying attention, just not necessarily over night.

This is certainly not a complete list, but it’s some of the main issues beginners seem to face. Yep, I was on that list too at one time.  

With love and blessings,

Celene Harrelson helps you take the training wheels off of your business, so you can ride like the wind! TheHappypreneur.com