SOCIAL media’s use is definitely increasing at the expense of traditional media — radio, print and television — to the extent that traditional media has now incorporated the “if you can’t beat them, join them” tactic and is utilising social media as a staple in their programmes. Inevitably, we are also seeing a growing number of businesses attempting to use social media as a marketing channel. Unfortunately, too many are using the channel in the wrong way.

From conception to execution, there is a right and a wrong way to successfully use social media to market your business. Here are a few of the most common mistakes made by business owners when using social media.

Right job, wrong person

After deciding to start using social media to market your business, you will definitely need to choose someone to manage it. The individual chosen is usually the employee or associate who seems to always be using social media. This is tantamount to selecting someone to represent your company on TV because they are not camera shy.

Social media is fundamentally another media channel. The person representing your company on any media channel must be well trained, well informed and conversant with the content they will be communicating to the audience. Therefore, being social media savvy is not the primary requirement.

Inappropriate content

We know that a large number of your prospective customers are using social media and you want to reach them to sell more of your products and services. However, selling to your audience through social media is not the same as selling through traditional media. Using TV as an example, you would place your ad in a programme slot that’s most popular with your target market. The reason the programme is popular is because it has engaging content that resonates with its viewers. Your ad is simply trying to capture the attention of the programme’s already captivated audience.

To sell through social media, you must also first build a captivated audience by developing and distributing engaging content. If your content consists solely of sales and product information you will be running a very boring channel. And who would want to watch that channel? Incidentally, saying, “Hello, just wishing you a nice day,” and occasionally throwing in an overused inspirational quote are not good ideas for engaging content.

No clearly defined goals

A common answer given by business owners to the question, “Why do you use social media?” is “Because my competitors are using it.” Whatever the reason that prompted you to start using social media you must take the next step to establish some defined goals for using it. To participate in social media marketing requires time and money, not much different from traditional media marketing. However, some goals are more achievable in one medium than the other. Bear that in mind when you are establishing your goals.

Using the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) principle for goal setting, you should specify what you intend to achieve from social media marketing. Some of the most common social media marketing goals include: brand awareness; thought leadership; website traffic; lead generation; customer retention; and sales.

It must be noted, however, that some goals are more attainable than others and the list above is ordered from most to least attainable.

No marketing of content

Again using the television analogy, any new TV programme is typically heavily marketed at the start of the season. The marketing is eventually scaled down after the programme has gained some traction. The approach should be no different for your social media channels. No one will know of the informative and engaging content on your social media channels unless you tell them about it through your marketing efforts.

Your marketing activities should entail both on-network and off-network activities. On-network activities include built-in promotional features of the social networks, for example the ‘promote post’ feature of both Facebook and Twitter. Off-network activities involve promoting your content outside of the social network on which it resides. For example, you could use an email marketing campaign to promote your blog post. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that if you build it they will come.

Aiming at nothing

Most of us will say we are not good at math so we don’t bother with numbers although we rely on numbers on a daily basis to measure our activities. From checking our cell phone battery status so we know what percentage use we have left to checking our gas tank gauge so we know if we need to refuel, we use numbers to measure everyday. However, for some reason we hardly ever measure our business activities and social media is no exception. One of the many great things about social media marketing is that it is fairly easy to measure your efforts.

After establishing your social media goals the next step is to determine which key performance indicators (KPIs) or measures must be monitored to tell if you are achieving those goals. The major social media platforms provide some form of performance analytics or you may need to subscribe to third party tools to help with this. The key thing is to ensure that you are using the right metric to measure the right goal. If your goal is not to run out of gas you shouldn’t just be monitoring your oil gauge. Do not use the number of Likes and Followers as your major indicators of social media success.

Social media is a real marketing channel that is being used by brands large and small. You must address these common social media marketing mistakes if you want to get the results you deserve. If you don’t, your competitor will.

Wayne Marsh is an Internet marketing consultant and can be contacted at marshwa@ebusinessSolutionsJa.com or www.ebusinessSolutionsJa.com or Twitter.com/JamaicanTwits.