5 Common Facebook Marketing Mistakes

Social media is becoming more popular and relevant every day. It accounts for a huge percentage of online activity, with sites like Facebook and Twitter consistently having some of the highest Alexa ranks. Being active on these sites and using them to engage customers can really make a difference in your online marketing campaign. Unfortunately, businesses of all sizes sometimes make mistakes in social media, ranging from setting up an account wrong to posting potentially offensive content. Mistakes are easy to make, can waste time and turn off potential customers. Here are a few of the most common mistakes businesses make on Facebook.

Posting Irrelevant Content

Certain types of content will always get more attention than others. After all, who doesn’t love cute animal photos or funny videos? But while posting these kinds of content may generate more likes at first, in the long run it will hurt rather than help your business. People may see you as a spammer and hide you from their newsfeed. Chances are people liked your page because they are somewhat interested in your business, and most will want to see things that are at least tangentially related to your industry. With this in mind, though, there are ways to tie your business in with current events and trending content. For example, if you’re an electric company, it would be appropriate to share a link with tips on how to set up back-up generators during hurricane season. Not only would this post provide value to your customers, it’s also relevant to your brand.

Creating a Personal Account Rather Than a Business Page

A number of businesses set up the wrong type of account when they’re first getting started on Facebook. Often this is by accident, as Facebook has separate account types for companies and individuals. If you create the wrong type of account, you won’t have access to any of the advertising tools Facebook offers. You’ll also need to approve friend requests and be unable to have more than 5,000 friends on the site. Worse, Facebook will likely shut down your page, as personal profiles are not designed for companies.

Posting Controversial or Political Subject Matter

One of the easiest ways to turn off potential customers is to offend them. Obviously you shouldn’t post anything in poor taste, but what’s offensive to some followers may not always be immediately apparent to you. As a general rule, you should avoid politics, religion and similar subjects, unless they’re directly related to your business.

Not Tracking Conversions

If you use Facebook for advertising, you should definitely be using the site’s conversion tools. Facebook is really great for marketing because it can show you how many customers go to your website after visiting your Facebook page. You can also track specific actions, such a making a purchase from your site, registering or visiting a particular section of your site. This can really help you see how well your Facebook campaign is going.

Not Responding to Feedback, Especially When It’s Negative

You should be responding to customers in a timely manner across all social media channels. Customer service is becoming more and more social media-oriented, and people expect someone to respond to their Facebook comments and messages. To avoid having to respond to comments, some businesses don’t let users post on their timeline, but this just suggests they can’t handle feedback. When a customer posts on your page, be sure to answer in a timely, professional and informative manner. Be open to feedback and show your customers you value their opinion. On Facebook, especially negative comments can come back to haunt you. People can and will call you out if you hide negative feedback. In addition, the comments users post will show up on your timeline much longer than they would on your Twitter, since posts are less frequent.

Avoid these five mistakes and you’ll be on your way to a successful Facebook campaign!

About The Author
Savannah Marie is a social media junkie, online marketing wizard and consultant for SEOcompanyGo. Catch up with her on Twitter and Google+