Being a young entrepreneur this day and age has many advantages. One of the more obvious ones is you have access (and the knowledge) to utilize social networking sites to promote your services or product. But just because you’ve used Facebook since its inception, for example, doesn’t mean that you automatically know how to use the site to boost business sales. In fact, if you go about it the wrong way, you can turn a lot of people off and actually lose customers rather than gaining them. With said, to learn the top 3 social media mistakes to avoid, continue reading below.
3. Choosing Too Many Social Networking Sites
While it may feel instinctively to get your business’ name out there by getting involved in every single social networking site the internet has to offer, this can actually hinder your chances of making an impact with your target audience. This is because ultimately you will be spreading yourself too thin— meaning it will be extremely difficult for you to run your business and put enough effort to reach your audience in every different venue. Updating statuses and posting links takes a lot of time and more effort than you would think—so much time and effort that some small business owners actually hire social media interns to keep their sites updated and engage with the target audience. If you can find a social media intern to work for free, great. If not then it would be best to only choose two or three social networking sites to promote your business and really focus on building a relationship with your target audience. After some time you think you can handle a one or two more, then go ahead.
2. Confusing Personal and Professional Accounts
One of the major no-no’s is not separating your professional accounts from your personal accounts, or worse, separating them but treating them in the same fashion. They are not the same. While it is in fact ok to have a light-hearted/joking tone on your professional account every once in a while you don’t want to overdo it. Don’t write statuses and tweets about your crazy beer-drinking binge over the weekend. Basically what is trying to be said here is don’t post photos, statuses, or links that are not directly-related to your business on your professional page. On the same note, don’t bombard your friends with business-related information on your professional account either. Your friends are not your clients and your clients are not your friends. Always remember that.
1. Get Warped In
Networking in general can be fun, especially if you are getting positive feedback from your target audience. But it’s important that while building relationships with potential clients through social networking venues can help boost your business, it should never take priority. All too often young entrepreneurs get too absorbed with maintaining their social networking sites that they neglect other duties (more important and productive duties). So, to prevent yourself from allowing social networking to take up too much of your time, limit the amount of time you spend on online marketing /promotion and stick to it.
This guest contribution was submitted by Jamie Davis, who specializes in writing about masters degree. Questions and comments can be sent to: davis.jamie17@gmail.com.
