I met with a great company last week who is trying to re-launch their company after an ugly ‘custody’ battle of ownership. During this battle, the company was beat up, customers were lied to, the brand message became as clear as mud and their market share dropped drastically: essentially, NOW more than ever, they need a social media campaign to recapture what they once had.
During the course of the spirited meeting I kept hearing the same thing over and over from one marketing rep: “We are already blogging. We are already using facebook, We have three hundred fans on Facebook, we made a viral video already…” It kept bothering me. I saw the video, it will never be ‘viral’, I’ve seen the messages they are putting out on Facebook, nothing remarkable about that, I checked out their Twitter page to see they were only talking to themselves, etc.
Before you let any of your employees get social online, consider the following 5 ways to screw up a social media campaign:
1.) Don’t have a clear message or goal.
If your company is just tweeting to tweet or blogging because your SEO guy insists on it, your social media campaign will NOT yield fruit.
2.) Being Mechanical.
If your idea of a successful social media campaign is tweeting twice a day or posting on Facebook 3 or cranking out 4 blogs a week, your social media campaign will not succeed. To truly engage in social media, you must be fluid, you must be you, you must be engaged.
3.) Let the Interns do it.
Sure, they are young, they use facebook, they have to know how to do this stuff and they are cheap labor. There is a huge difference between posting on your facebook wall what you had for breakfast and how many Baileys Irish Cream shots you had the night before to communicating and engaging with customers with a big picture goal in mind.
4.) Create a ‘Viral’ Video.
This one kills me. Your company has decided to create a viral video. The owner thinks it’s hilarious. The janitor even had a hoot helping out. Your whole office was involved and ‘get’s’ it. The truth is this: You made the video because YOU thought it was funny. Your intended audience doesn’t get your internal reality. Stuff becomes or goes viral because your audience Get’s it and LOVES it and HAS to share it with their friends.
5.) Sir SpamALot.
Your audience, customers, followers, prospects don’t want to be spammed. They don’t want special offers every three minutes, they don’t want your latest fliers stuffed in their face, they don’t want to be sold to. The purpose of social media is to ENGAGE, to talk, to encourage healthy dialogue. If you are constantly trying to sell, you WILL lose followers. I always encourage clients to put themselves in the shoes of their clients and / or prospects and ask themselves, ‘Will this annoy me over time?’.
Need some help? Call me. Nationwide: 866-998-5 6886 or in Orlando: 407-830-4550. You can of course also visit my web site to learn more about my company: http://www.ontargetwebsolutions.com