This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
How to Improve Your Social Media Campaign
In the following article you'll find useful tips for improving your social media campaign
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Today?
Every big company is making mistakes. Build your own successful step-by-step social strategy to avoid common failures.
My social media strategy fails - what’s wrong?
You may agree with the fact that social media strategy is a tricky thing. Many SEO analysts have experienced a period of desperation when everything “is made correctly but still not working”.
Hopefully, the social media strategy itself is not a big mystery. There is only one reason why it’s not working as expected - you are doing something wrong. The good news is, it can be fixed.
With the collection of most common fails it will be much easier to recognize and neutralize personal ones. By analyzing online mistakes and uncomfortable situations of large enterprises we understand unpublicized rules better and proceed fruitful and beneficial campaign. In other words, learn from the mistakes of others.
Let’s take a look on a few well-known fails
Sometimes promoting a brand on social networks is like being at the tip of the spear. It can appear extremely successful and attractive campaign, like #beaHero for GoPro, or it can also become a reason for online booling. Hashtags must be treated especially careful. In a social media digital world, there are no strict rules to follow, but there are manners.
#McDstories
McDonald's decided to run a hashtag promotion which had to encourage its clients sharing sweet stories connected with the fast-food restaurant network. The hashtag supposed to spread positive information about the food and impressions experienced there.
Instead of romantic stories and funny cases they received a bunch of unpleasant fails experienced there. People started to share food intoxication cases, observations and just spread hatred using the same #McDstories tag. The process was unstoppable, and McDonald’s decided to close the promo within two hours. Unfortunately, the trend exists till now.
Instead of romantic stories and funny cases they received a bunch of unpleasant fails experienced there. People started to share food intoxication cases, observations and just spread hatred using the same #McDstories tag. The process was unstoppable, and McDonald’s decided to close the promo within two hours. Unfortunately, the trend exists till now.
The lesson shows how easy it is not only to spoil a promo action, but also turn it into an adverse publicity. A brand has to be careful when choosing the concept of a promotion, but no one is safe from cases like this because social networks are hard to control.
MasterCard and its critics
The company wanted to use social networks for personal purposes and collect information about Brit Awards due to the involvement of journalists. In the official invitation the organizers required to link personal accounts with corporate ones before, during and after the event evening, do retweets and mention hashtags. @MasterCardUK and #PricelessSurprises were to be included. Journalists were offended with this request and called it “not ethical."
As a result the providers have changed the conditions for journalists’ accreditation, but unfortunately, the anti-campaign was already started even before the event. This is an example of not knowing the limits and demanding too much. The social network is a free platform where no such rules are applicable.
J.P. Morgan and his #AskJPM
J.P. Morgan in 2013 just right in the middle of the financial crisis decided to run a twitter account where he promised to answer all the questions from subscribers. He didn’t expect to receive questions as follows:
Very soon he closed his account. It teaches us not to use social networks for serious political discussions and not over evaluate personal abilities.
The list of fails in social networks can be endless because we still experience misunderstanding online and trying to avoid it every day. The point of all these cases is correct usage of hashtags and following moral principles we usually use in everyday life. What about the whole process from scratch? How many of them didn’t even start to work correctly till now? How many analysts are trying to find new algorithms of reaching the top of search results?
Basics. What does successful social promotion is?
Many SEO specialists consider increase of visitors to be a successful result of social media promotion. This is nothing else but substitution of notions. Success for every single business means income, which means sales. A number of visits or clicks which don’t influence an overall number of clients won’t play a prominent role in a strategy. The correct goal setting is the first layer of a card-castle.
Mistake number one. Taking everything for granted
The internet including social networks is full of advises on promotion via socializing. On the one hand the pieces of advice are mostly useful, but on the other hand, they are too general. The most common mistake is daily or hourly posting. For some business models, this is not only important but crucial, for others, it can be marked as spam and blacklisted. For example, big travel agencies have hot or canceled tours and special deals every day. Twitting the most current ones is a win in the sense of rising sales. There is no need in non-informative posts because the risk of being marked as spam is high, which will cause only negative effect on the whole strategy.
Adopt each advice
Each system has to be adopted. Following cliche doesn’t lead to a guaranteed success in the constantly changing SEO world. Consider your brunch, auditory, type of product and other criteria for creating personalized and working strategy.
Mistake number two. Not writing a strategy
Light-minded planning approach leads to problems in all spheres of business. Spend an hour, a day, a week, or a month for creating and writing down the plan, proofread it, ask other people to read it, and approve before taking any actions. Be as detailed as possible. Including approaches, time periods, expectations and general effect on business, which is crucial for an understanding of initial goals.
Mistake number three. Talking too much about yourself
Posting only promotions and news of business is a good strategy, which will lead to nowhere. Having such a posts is a must. The working posts have to attract people. This can be entertainment, news, travel blog, vlog, or anything else adapted to your auditory and to your branch of the trade. Write your thoughts, comments, make videos and be active in online society. With your accounts, you can not only share business information but also be active in forums, groups, discussions, etc.
Mistake number four. Being too formal/too personal
This is a tricky question answer to which every entrepreneur finds in its limits. These limits decide which information to share, in what format to write, which vocabulary to use, how to communicate in comments, how often to answer, which comments to delete and many other. Communication in a formal way can cause the same negative effect as in private. The main things are to answer the questions as soon as possible and don’t leave comments without attention.
The row of the tips is very wide and always actual because social networks are integral parts of our lives. From the form of the share button till morality and principles, everything plays the same important role in making online branding. The culture of hashtags has already its own rules and regulations. Which tips do you find important? Please, share your experience in comments