Stop Wasting Time and Resources on These Social Media Tactics
Jill Kurtz, Owner, Kurtz Digital StrategyYou may feel like you are on top of it because you have integrated social media into your marketing and communication. But using outdated tactics may be ruining your impact.Social media is constantly evolving. Tactics that worked in the past are no longer effective. Worse, they may work against your efforts to engage online.Stop wasting time and resources on these social media tactics:
Don’t focus on follower numbers.
The quantity of people who follow you is not nearly as important as the quality. You are not in a competition to gain the most followers. Your focus should be on connecting with the right people.Do follow the people you want to be connected with. Hopefully, they will reciprocate.Then, spend your energies on providing great content. Couple that with engaging with your followers – liking their comments, sharing their content, answering their questions, etc.Now you are on the right track to building the right community rather than focusing on numbers.
Don’t automate.
It’s so tempting to set up auto responses. It’s also completely counter to why people connect with you on social media!Your social community wants and expects personal contact. Automated responses at best don’t give people the connection they crave. At worst, they make them walk away.Automated, generic messages are a big turn-off. They signal that your only concern is getting people into a pipeline rather than creating a real connection and relationship.
Don’t hashtag and link excessively.
Unfortunately, too many brands still think that the best way to get the most out of a post is to stuff it full of links to their products or services and hashtags.Link to what you want to sell! Use hashtags to get more eyeballs! Neither is really your best approach. Hashtags and links actually make posts harder to read and understand, completely defeating your reason for posting on social in the first place.Further, many social platforms are now down-ranking posts that link off that platform, decreasing your organic reach. For example, a Facebook post that has a link to your website, will not be shown to as many people as a post with no link. That’s also works against the whole reason for posting.
Your social approach needs to evolve.
Don’t get complacent on social media. Platforms change rules and algorithms all the time. People’s expectations also change. Your social media strategy needs to keep pace.
