Five Social Media Mistakes You Should Avoid

Social media offers a wealth of opportunity for businesses to further promote their offering and your dealership should definitely be making use of this marketing channel, but there are a number of common social media mistakes you must be sure to avoid.

For many small independent businesses, the rise of social media has been a game changer. The ability to reach thousands of prospective and existing customers through the likes of Facebook enables these businesses to compete with much larger companies. However, to be able to do this, you have to know what you are doing, and which pitfalls to steer well clear of.

1^st Mistake – Not Targeting Individuals

Creating targeted content is extremely important. If your business uses multiple social media channels, let’s say Facebook and LinkedIn, the two audiences are completely different to one another. Thus, the content that you create needs to match the personality and tone of each audience appropriately.

Everything you do on social media should revolve around your customers, so you need to understand where your clients are, what their interests are and how you can stand out to your target audience. The best way to do this is by profiling. Use your experience and official research to figure out what sort of person would be interested in your products and services, and once you have done this, you will be able to tailor your content specifically towards that audience.

2^nd Mistake – Promoting Your Business Too Much

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as promoting your business too much. Overloading your social media followers with product posts can cause them to lose interest in your business and you may end up losing them completely.

Your feed shouldn’t consist of only promotional posts, but you should try and engage your audience with content that interests them. A good ratio is no more than 30% business and product promotion and at least 70% entertaining and informative content.

3^rd Mistake – High Expectations

Many businesses tend to forget that building brand reputation and gaining a loyal following on social media does not happen overnight. It is tempting to simply give up when you aren’t seeing the results you want to, but being patient is a key step in mastering digital marketing. Look carefully at your strategy and consider trying out new things, rather than abandoning your efforts altogether.

4^th Mistake – Hiding Behind a Corporate Voice

You may feel that giving your business a corporate tone of voice on social media is the best way to appear professional, which will attract customers, but this could come across as impersonal and have the opposite effect.

One of the benefits of being an independent business is that you can offer a personalised service, unlike massive franchises with so many customers, meaning that a systematic approach is their only option. Your brand’s personality and your company values should shine through in your posts and every comment from a customer should receive a personalised response. This will present your dealership as unique, friendly and caring.

5^th Mistake – Avoiding Confrontation

How you deal with a complaint online reveals a lot about your dealership. A negative comment or review should not be seen as something to shy away from or gloss over, but rather a window of opportunity to rectify an issue and show your audience that you care enough to do this.

Ignoring or deleting the person’s comment will only infuriate the complainant further, and not only that, but everybody else will be able to see that you have just brushed aside somebody’s request for help, which could deter them from your business. Instead, you should apologise for the customer’s bad experience and ask them to call you so that you may work out a solution to their problem, away from the glare of social media.

For more information about the social media services Click Dealer offers its dealership clients and how we can help improve your engagement, reach, brand recognition and social leads, get in touch today via marketing@clickdealer.co.uk, 01782 478220 or via our contact page.