5 social media fails to avoid

These days, social media is a must-have for almost every brand out there. It's a key element of your inbound marketing strategy and is one of the best ways to stay connected with your customers. However, there are still a lot of brands out there that are getting it completely wrong!

We want to make sure that you're not one of them...so here are 5 things you should avoid doing on social media (and just general life to be honest...)

1. Always talking about yourself

No one likes those people that just talk about themselves constantly. And it's the same on social media. Your followers want to see your opinions on the whole industry and they want you to engage and communicate with the wider community.

So, only ever talking about yourself won't go down too well, it looks cold and will probably lose you quite a few followers.

Make sure you respond to any comments you receive, and if you aren't getting that many, start the conversation yourself!

Spend some time each day going over your timelines, liking and commenting on posts that align with your brand's thoughts and ideas.

2. Being on the defensive

We know that it can be hard to listen to criticism, especially if it's coming from strangers on social media. However, good social media management involves taking those negative comments and responding in a positive way.

The worst thing you can do is overreact, respond in a rude manner and act unprofessionally. 

Not everyone is always going to agree with you or align with your values and that's ok because those people aren't your prospects or customers. Responding appropriately will show your following your professionalism and integrity.

So keep your calm and offer them an alternative method of contacting you if you need to resolve the issue further.

3. Posting offensive things

This is a fairly obvious one. But it does still happen - a joke gone wrong or a misinterpretation can cause a lot of damage to your brand reputation. We all saw the recent mess PureGym got themselves in after an offensive Instagram advert was posted.

Hopefully, everyone has learnt from PureGym's mistakes - in our experience if it's even just slightly on the risky side, it's best to forget it.

The last thing you want to do is insult and offend your audience. This is a sure-fire way of creating a bad name for your company and losing followers.

4. Bad mouthing your competitors

Competitors get their name for a reason - they're your competition. And whilst a little bit of competitiveness can be a good motivator, no one likes a sore loser.

Bad mouthing your competitors, especially on social media, comes across petty and unprofessional. Plus it advertises to your audience that there is other options out there for them to consider.

Stay professional and even congratulate your competitors or support them when they need it, your audience will think better of you for it!

5. Too many typos

We're not saying you have to be perfect, everyone makes little mistakes here and there, it's what makes us human. But if you have typos all over your social media accounts, it makes your company look lazy and shows that you don't spend time proofing what is sent out.

Don't leave your audience thinking you don't care...

How can HubSpot help

If you need help managing your social media then chat to us now about using HubSpot. 

HubSpot's social media management software can make it simple to use and monitor all your various accounts. Their social monitoring, publishing, reporting and inbox tools can take care of your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

You can schedule posts ahead of time, monitor social media trends, see which posts perform best and even reply to conversations in real-time directly through the platform. What more could you want?