STOP USING These 3 social media Tactics

Making a strict employee social media policy

Some companies have social media policies so lengthy they get their own binders. Zappos, on the other hand, has a policy so short it could fit on a Post-It: “us be real, and use your best judgment.”

If you’ve got an incredibly strict, detailed employee social media policy, it might be time to drop all the clauses and provisions and follow Zappos’s lead.

After all, if you give your team members more freedom, they could turn into your most passionate brand advocates— encouraging your employees to share makes them 31% more likely to publicly make positive comments about you and 24% more likely to recommend your products.

The average employee has 10 times the number of followers as your corporate network, and 90% of those followers don’t know your brand.

What’s more, 92% of people trust recommendations from their friends and family more than any other advertising. That means the way to your future customers’ hearts? It’s through your employees!

What to do instead

There’s nothing inherently wrong with having a policy (in fact, the majority of companies do. But rather than laying down the law, try creating your policy with your employees.

15Five, for example, help an all-hands meeting to figure out their target persona. With a unified vision, team members could post their own content with confidence.

You can also work together to figure out best practices. Your employees will probably have a ton of ideas you haven’t thought of; plus, being part of this process means they’re far likelier to buy in.

Finally, instead of stifling your employees’ voices, encourage them to be themselves. A genuine post goes much further than a forced, buzzword-y one.

Only sharing text and image updates

Images and text can still drive engagement, but social video is becoming too important to ignore.

Not only will video swallow up 69% of consumer internet traffic by next year, but watching videos about products is four times more popular than reading about them.

And here’s the doozy: 25% of consumers will lose interest in your brand if it doesn’t have video.

So, safe to say video is important. Unfortunately, many brands are letting this screen revolution play on without them—as we found, less than 1% of their Facebook posts feature videos.

What to do instead

If you haven’t already integrated video into your content marketing strategy, now’s the time!

Need some guidance? Wistia’s Alyce Currier has put together an incredibly handy video guide for brands.

She says, "repurposing the same videos across your platforms is fine to start, but to maximize video’s potential, create customized content for each network."

Take Facebook. Since the vast majority of video views are silent, creating content that can stand without sound is crucial. When you make YouTube videos, on the other hand, incorporating audio is necessary for engagement.

Sending automated messages when someone follows you

Imagine a stranger smiles at you. You smile back—and then, they walk over and say, “Hey, could I have 10 bucks?”

I don’t know about you, but that interaction would feel pretty manipulative to me.

But sending an automated messages to new followers is essentially the same thing—not only does the lack of personalization show that you don’t care about them as an individual, it also says you care way more about what they can do for you than the other way around.

What to Do Instead

Have real, meaningful interactions with your followers. Like and retweet their content. If they mention your brand, send a reply (and give it a personal touch!).

“It feels amazing to know that our favorite brands and personalities value our custom and support. And sometimes all it takes to show that is a personal response.”

This strategy definitely requires more time, energy, and resources than setting up a trigger so every new follower gets the same message. But remember that stranger from the example?

What if, instead of asking for money, they’d asked you to dinner—and then spent the next couple months slowly getting to know you. You could develop a permanent friendship. Similarly, if you take it slow with your customers, they may stick around for life.

Click on the link below to speak with a member of Donovan Digital Solutions expert marketing team about our social media and inbound marketing services!