There’s a time and a spot for everything and the open, personable social media strategy might make it appear like anything can be appropriate if posted with the right hashtag or paired with the right quip.
While social media indeed provides for more flexibility in content and voice than more conventional marketing platforms, you still have to be cautious when publishing a new post.
Ethical marketing is about honesty and transparency.
Stats That Show Unethical Social Media Strategy
A study found that 94% of customers are likely to be faithful to a brand that offers complete transparency.
Furthermore, 73% of users say they would be amenable to pay more for a product from such a brand.
The information came from a study of 400 marketers in the U.S. and the U.K. about what they contemplate to be unethical marketing strategies.
- 69% said marketing that stretches or distorts the truth is unethical.
- 64% said marketing that targets and exploits vulnerable groups is unethical.
- 62% said marketing that conceals important information is wrong.
- 58% said marketing that is shaming is unethical.
- 56% said marketing that uses unrealistic or altered images is unethical.
- 56% said marketing that induces anxiety or fear is unethical.
- 43% reported high-pressure sales tactics are unethical.
What Are Bad Social Media Strategies?
If you’re running an effective campaign for your business on social media strategy, make sure you never post or share the content of these sorts:
Political Views
A bit of controversy is an excellent thing for your business in the context of a content marketing drive; declaring a strong position on a debatable subject can build solidarity among a strategic portion of your viewers while simultaneously stirring the pot for more engagement and conversation.
However, posting your opinions on meaningless issues–that is to say, problems that have nothing to do with your company or niche is always a bad idea.
Politics serve to stir up more controversy than analysis, and you could easily wind up alienating much of your followers.
Questionable Humor
Exercising humor as part of your content strategy is beneficial, if not essential.
Humor is a critical factor in most pieces of viral content, and it’s an effortless way to create your publications more relatable and more attractive for your audience.
However, there are fine lines of suitability with humor, while the content wouldn’t be explicitly abusive or demeaning, it might be generated as a slew of accusations and demands that would mean that the post will be taken down.
The keyword here is “questionable” if there’s a chance someone could be offended, desist posting it.
Inappropriate Commemorations
Remembering an event on social media may seem like an excellent way to be consistent and timely while showcasing your company’s humane side, but social commemorations can simply cross the line into “tacky” or even “disrespectful” territory.
For example, Adidas.
Customers who competed in the Boston Marathon in 2017 received a very inadequately worded email from the significant shoe and sports attire company.
The headline read, “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!”
In the context of any other fitness experience, this might seem harmless. In fact, many personalities use this kind of phrasing when they apply to complete an event.
But this message is on the bases of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which murdered three people and wounded more than 250 people.
Excessive to say, many people were hurt.
They immediately sprang an apology, but the damage was done.
If your reliability is doubted, even slightly, your supporters will turn against you.
Thoughtless Plays on Current Events
In a related vein, don’t hijack a current situation to generate some attention in the present.
There are actions you can support a news event, or even newsjack a content piece to present a foundation for your own, but blindly taking on a news event is a recipe for disaster.
Open Invitations to Snark
The Internet is a harsh and savage place.
If you present yourself up to the snarky masses, they will take advantage of you.
For example, in 2013, when JP Morgan entertained an open Q&A session, they were recognized with lots of snarky questions implying the company was illegal and unethical.
In an even more new example, the NYPD tried to produce more positive feelings by asking users to post photos of themselves with policemen practicing the hashtag #myNYPD.
Instead, many used the hashtag to post pictures of police ruthlessness and wrongdoing.
Situations like these could have been limited by thinking carefully about how their public would react.
Counterattacks
Social media is, basically, an open forum.
Some people will use it to commemorate your business, and others will analyze it negatively.
No matter what results, don’t respond with a counterattack.
Meeting negativity with more negativity will make your business seem juvenile, petty, and vengeful.
Instead, respond to cynical posts with calm understanding.
Try to get the full range of the complaint (or insult), and do what you can to make it better.
If you can’t make it better, cut your failures and turn the other cheek. Don’t add more combustion to the fire.
Formulated Responses
It can be fascinating to save time with a handful of formulaic answers.
For example, you could have a short statement of information ready to answer to different questions, such as a consumer who can’t find your company hours, or a customer who has criticism about the timeliness of your service.
However, using a template response spontaneously strips the social media strategy of its most significant power: the human element.
If a fan sees they are being responded to with a formulaic comment, your reliability and personal charm are instantly destroyed.
Rather, take the time to customize your message, even if the focus content remains related.
Monitor All Your Messages From One Place
With our social inbox monitor all your customer queries & messages on multiple social networks from one place.
Personal Information
This isn’t about personal knowledge like phone numbers or bank logins; this is about the information that distinguishes you as an individual.
If you’re creating a personal brand, feel free to showcase as much of your own connections as you’d like.
But when you’re posting on account of a company, keep your personal identification out of it.
[bctt tweet=”Show off an aptitude of personality, but keep it in line with the brand’s character. ” username=”SocialChampSays”]
Otherwise, you’ll clue your audience in to the fact that the “brand” and the person behind the brand are diverse, and you’ll be building your personality instead of building your brand’s.
Blatant Self-Promotion or Advertising
People tune out advertising.
They don’t want to see it, particularly on a social media platform. Social media is a community for personal interaction, news updates, exciting content, and exclusive offers.
If your posts seem like you’re blatantly advertising yourself or pushing a product, you’ll waste a substantial quantity of credibility.
Instead, keep your center on making your posts substantive, imaginative, entertaining, and appealing.
Hashtags Open to Interpretation
Hashtags can be a potent tool, but they can quickly be misconstrued.
They are frequently short and written as one word in a more moderate case, making them open to criticism, so review your hashtag for any possible unintended explanations before posting.
For instance, when singer Susan Boyle released a new album back in 2012, her P.R. team didn’t understand that “#SusanAlbumParty” could be interpreted in another way when written in all lowercase letters (#susanalbumparty).
Pushy Sales Tactics
Don’t think that social media strategy only works as an advertising medium.
No matter what you’re endeavoring, endless sales pitches and hype about your goods or services will only annoy people and send them elsewhere.
People may support you to learn about the outcomes or benefits you provide, but you have to give them incentives to stay and to keep coming back.
Failure to comprehend that social media strategy is about relationships will only create followers to drift away.
Who wouldn’t be bothered by a company that keeps bragging, forcing people to purchase and bombarding them with annoying messages?
Steer clear of such a practice.
Posting Too Much
Okay, you might be posting entertaining content, which is excellent – you are on the best track. But be precise – no matter how much appealing content you can come up with, posting too much is a misconception.
Churning out objectionable content is flooding your audience with more knowledge than they want.
If you stretch it, audiences will feel overwhelmed and annoyed.
What to do about it?
Give valuable information in measured doses.
Don’t exaggerate your interests, and try to be innovative.
Posting the similar kind of content repeatedly, or dull content they can find anywhere is monotonous and of little value.
To keep things interesting, post a description of the content on different subjects.
Play with jokes and visuals.
Share interesting videos.
Just keep it diverse.
No Activity
The different end of the spectrum is a moderate activity or no activity at all.
Some companies start a Facebook page and post a few features or videos expecting that will be enough to nurture interest.
But if there’s no additional input, the followers you do increase will become bored with it.
Keep in mind that people won’t notice anything about your company unless you properly captivate them.
Larger organizations may hire social media managers, but modest companies should set aside sufficient time to devote to social media marketing.
This is a precondition of progress in today’s digital world – you can no longer be an influential marketer without utilizing social media strategy.
Some things you can do to bring customers include finding popular hashtags and following the conversation on Instagram.
Another example entails creating your own videos and coming up with insights to add to Twitter discussions.
Whatever you do, you should always concentrate on what your audience enjoys, whether it be memes, jokes, or photos.
Again – play with the content and entertain your customers.
Lousy Customer Service
Posting remarks on Facebook or pinning photos on Pinterest is all-important, but not entirely to be acknowledged in your peoples’ minds.
If your consumers try to reach you by requesting a question or posting a comment and you miss to respond, you might be in a big struggle.
Such behavior symbolizes to your audience that they’re being neglected or devalued, and they’ll leave you.
And not just that – they may be so disappointed with your service that they address a lousy evaluation on their profile.
Remember – it only needs one viral post to harm your reputation grievously.
Social media is a huge opportunity to present brilliant customer service, so make it a point to be sensitive, responsive, and valuable to people.
Answer their questions and resolve their concerns.
When consumers see that they matter to you, they seem more involved and are more likely to recommend you.
Neglecting Followers
Besides poor customers help, you can also fail by neglecting your followers altogether.
A failure to reply to people’s comments, suggestions, and other feedback – even if they don’t question you anything directly – is not a way to create relationships.
It’s essential to recognize that all communication is a two-way street.
If you are not communicating with followers, their interest will soon evanesce.
So be loquacious!
When dialog about your brand is happening, keep the discussion going.
Like and participate in other people’s posts, retweet comments, repin pins, communicate with your fans, solicit feedback – do anything your viewers expect in social platforms.
Social media helps you by enabling you to communicate with fans and supporters, so always do your best to keep the communication alive.
Being Too Formal
Audiences want to communicate with real people, not with machines – if you interact in an overly restricted and formal way, you will only turn people off.
So don’t appear like a robot, be a person.
Don’t approach people with formal expressions such as dear sir/madam – write their names instead.
They will acknowledge it and feel satisfied if you show them how harmonious you are.
Of course, you should continue being professional, but write in an upbeat mood and add a personal touch.
Use informal vocabulary and light humor, as if you were speaking with associates.
To supplant on social media, your brand must be simple to relate to.
Inadequate Grammar and Bad Taste
Always double-check your posts for spelling and grammar mistakes before you publish them online.
If you have too many errors, it determines that you are not professional.
If viewers see that you don’t care plenty even to proofread your own content, they might taunt you.
Dodge that at all costs.
Furthermore, sometimes emotions or extreme opinions can lead you to ditch courtesy, but remember that you’re crafting the public image of your company.
Rude jokes and offensive allegations aren’t what people want when they do business.
Sometimes this happens inadvertently.
In an epic fail, American Apparel posted a fireworks picture that was actually the 1986 explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.
Both groups could only regret and confess bewilderment.
Don’t let that happen to you, so be cautious.
Summing Up
Progress on social media is not easy to accomplish, and if you aren’t committed enough, you can very simply make one of these errors.
However, if you present enough effort, it is not so challenging to avoid them.
Avoiding such blunders helps you build relationships, retain customers, and promote your brand in the right way.
Peculiar use of social media will grow your company, while poor use will hinder your brand and drive viewers away.
It is up to you which direction you will choose.
The outcomes of even one bad post can be terrible for your company, particularly if you already have a big fan base.
Don’t support a brief lapse in judgment to ruin what is otherwise a proper and robust social media strategy.
Keep your smartness about you and manage every post with a notable degree of scrutiny.
If you’re looking for a rule of thumb–if rereading a post makes you think twice about posting it, you probably shouldn’t post it.
Today’s world is full of snap inspections, instantly damaged reputations, so it’s “better safe than sorry” for your company’s social media profiles.
Happy posting!
