Is your business using social media? If not, you’re missing out on potential marketing opportunities. According to Brandwatch.com, there are currently 3.17 billion people using the internet, while 2.3 billion of those people are active on social media. Learning about some of the biggest hits and misses on social media can help you move your business forward:
Hits
- Dollar Shave Club and #RazorBurn: This hip company has quickly gained attention for its funny marketing efforts, including the recent #RazorBurn campaign. Dollar Shave Club used the “RazorBurn” hashtag to insult their competition while posting funny and sharable content to Twitter and Facebook. This gave the company’s social media mentions a 24% increase and resulted in more fans and followers.
- GoPro and skateboarding cats: The internet is filled with funny cat videos, which is probably why GoPro decided to try out this trend in 2015.
The company shared videos of skateboarding cats on its Instagram account, which resulted in plenty of attention in the form of likes, shares, and mentions. More than 264,000 Instagram users ended up liking the post.
Misses
- BlackBerry and the wrong products: One of the biggest, and most visible, social media fails occurred in 2013. After singer and songwriter Alicia Keys was named Global Creative Director for BlackBerry, she sent a tweet using the Twitter for iPhone app—which meant she wasn’t using a BlackBerry.
- DiGiorno Pizza and #WhyIStayed: Hashtags can help your tweets and Facebook posts reach more people. Unfortunately, hashtags can also get companies in trouble if they don’t do their research. In 2014, #WhyIStayed started trending on Twitter as a way for people to share stories about domestic violence. Hoping to jump on a popular hashtag without seeing what it was about, DiGiorno Pizza tweeted “#WhyIStayed You had pizza.” The company was alerted of their mistake and apologized for the insensitive tweet.
What You Should Do
- Post regularly: If you want social media to enhance your business, you’ll need to get into the habit of posting content regularly. Many of today’s internet users will visit social media pages before checking out business websites. When companies aren’t active on social media, they run the risk of appearing unprofessional or outdated to potential new customers. Posting to websites like Facebook and Twitter once a day or a few times per week can help you reach new viewers as well as engage your current fans and followers.
- Research hashtags: Including one hashtag in Facebook posts and one to two hashtags in tweets can help your content become more visible to potential customers. But if you’re not using the right hashtags, your content might go nowhere or even end up offending people. Always research hashtags thoroughly before including them in your social media posts.
What You Shouldn’t Do
- Post too many times per day: It’s always a good idea to share quality content. However, if you focus on quantity instead of quality with your social media accounts, you may end up turning fans and followers away. You’ll need to find the balance between posting too infrequently and posting too often, so start by only posting quality content that you create or sharing quality content from other sources.
- Delete or ignore comments: Social media makes it much easier for customers to get in contact with companies. While this can result in praise and positivity, it also allows customers to share their complaints with others by simply typing up a quick comment. You should never ignore negative comments and certainly never delete them from your page. Instead, use these comments as opportunities for great customer service. Always respond as quickly as possible and offer to help the customer with whatever problem or concern they have. You may end up turning a negative into a positive for that customer, and it shows other customers that you are quick to respond to complaints.
Do you need help establishing a social media presence for your business? Pennington Creative offers a range of content marketing services, including social media posts. Explore our website and get in touch with us today to find out more.
