12 Sins of Social Media
T’was the the night before Christmas, and all around social media admins were scheduling content for the festive break for their social media channels.
Unfortunately, many will be making the same mistakes, meaning they can’t make the most of their online audience.
Leading up to the big day, we’ve created 12 sins of social media as an early Christmas gift for those looking to sharpen their content in 2022.
1. Lazy cross-posting
The first sin is not understanding that all platforms are different. Because of this, they require you to tailor your content to best present it on each channel. The mistake often made is preparing one piece of content, then canvasing it across all available outlets. Lazy.
A noticeboard style post on Twitter, with limited imagery isn’t worth posting on Instagram without a quality media to back it up. Equally, a lengthy piece of copy in an Instagram post will not translate to Twitter due to its character count, so trimming messaging or creating a thread of tweets is one way to make a long message bespoke for a different channel.
2. Bad link posting etiquette
A good understanding of how links are best shared on different platforms is fundamental to good social media practice. The key reason is when it’s done wrong, it can make your account look amateur.
E.g. it’s really important to test ‘cards’ as they appear in Facebook and Twitter, which are based on the makeup of the web page you’re linking to. If there’s no image after you’ve added the link, it’s best to attach one to the post. This will replace the blank link card and leave your post looking much slicker.
3. Trying to go viral
‘Going viral’ has been the envy of most social accounts for 10-15 years. Unfortunately, there is no exact science to it.
Some do it well, such as Paddy Power or Greggs have built their online persona as ‘challenger brands’; the cheeky chappies who always have a way to poke fun at a new trend. This is both well engineered and fits their unserious business personas.
Brands that get this wrong chase topics, without the persona. This is true of both bigger and smaller brands. See the below example from Domino’s pizza, attempting ‘football banter’ without really earning the right to. This was met with a knowing and hefty negative audience.
4. Inconsistent tone of voice
Following on from the above, a wider issue is nailing your company’s ‘voice’. In order to engage with your target audience organically, you need to be able to speak to them.
A consistency in tone helps build expectations, relationships and ultimately engagements, whereas mixed messaging and tone can be confusing and distracting to followers, who may unfollow as a result.
5. Using all platforms
A common misconception is that your brand needs to be across all available platforms. This is far from the truth, especially if your audience isn’t across them all, or you’re not seeking a new audience.
An accountancy firm doesn’t need to be on tik tok as much as a chain of hair salons likely don’t need to be on Twitter. Use what’s best for you.
6. Bad customer service
Most B2C businesses aren’t lucky enough to have a customer service account, never mind people to staff it. If you fit into this, then just remember one thing – manage expectations.
Automated responses on Facebook messenger are a great way to do this, another is making clear your points of contact in social platform bios.
7. Inconsistent branding and graphics
Brand and image are more important than ever, which is why you should never scrimp on social media graphics.
You can’t just something up on Paint or use a free GIF anymore, you need to hammer home your brand with quality graphics. A consistent style helps audiences understand your brand and allows you to reinforce your values.
8. Over-posting
The old saying ‘quality over quantity’ is applicable here. A popular mistake is overwhelming your followers with content, especially on channels such as Instagram which are less ‘throw away’ than the news feed style of Twitter.
Experts Hootsuite recommend posting 3-7 times a week on Instagram, 1-2 times a day on Facebook, and no more than 1-5 times a day on Twitter and LinkedIn, unless you heavily rely on these two platforms.
9. Industry Jargon
Something that can greatly restrict your ability to communicate fully with an audience is confusing them with internal business or industry jargon.
Social media is all about communicating clearly, so consider every sentence and craft your copy so everyone can understand, not just those in ‘the know’.
10. Poor multimedia
The days of posting just text on any platform are long gone, and multimedia is king, that’s why it’s important to make your content stand out from the competition.
Spending time and effort in video and animation is a particularly inventive way to get across a campaign message or promotion.
11. Overusing hashtags
The purpose of hashtags is to enable users to more easily follow a phrase, topic or trend. Overusing them within a post can then water down the effectiveness of the key tags you’ve included.
Best practice suggests focusing on your campaign hashtag or the one or two trends you’re hoping to get in on. With Instagram, where multiple hashtags can be beneficial for exposure, try using them as a comment, giving your great caption more space to breathe.
12. Getting comfortable
The final sin is getting too comfortable with your output. Social media is an ever evolving landscape, which means we should all be encouraged to engage with changes and adopt those that work for us.
As we hope the above points make clear, not every update and addition will be to the benefit of your brand, but some will. The skill is finding the best for you. Get creative and see what comes of it. Oh, and have a very merry Christmas!
