Blog: Social media marketing, the basic mistakes

By Dinesh Jebamani Today we need to innovate in the way we want to communicate and interact with our community who we consider as customers, prospects or target groups. The ever evolving communication landscape and continuous new mediums emerging in Digital media which are adopted fast by the public leaves us with no choice but to explore and adopt to such mediums in order to reach intended audience, create awareness on our products and services, engage and stay relevant. The Social Media Landscape is depicted above. It indicates how cluttered the Digital Channels are and the usage of these channels will vary from country to country based on the following : Developed status of each country. Demography, life style, cultural beliefs and behavior. Per capita income, economic growth. Country status, government policies, regulation. Development in telecommunications and Internet.
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Mobile penetration and Internet access. Geographical status of such country. Cost of Internet access, mobile data and devices. In order to be effective in social media marketing we need to avoid the following basic mistakes since now Social Media is considered one of the key element of the marketing mix: Staff handling social media do not understand or have no prior experience, inadequate training on social media marketing. This leads to: Choosing the wrong channels to communicate. Since there is so many (Facebook, Twitter, linkedin, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, messenger services, youtube, vine, blogs etc) No prior evaluation of each channel to check the current usage in such country, demography using same, adoption rate, relevancy to the business, future growth potential. Poor resource allocation, development of business goals, not aligning with corporate strategy, spreading your self to thin will lead to poor return on investment, unable to measure effectiveness. At times if there is error on the posts made or offer given this too can lead to social media black lash and create a negative sentiment on the brand. Lack of commitment to social media long term or expecting results and returns overnight will not help . Not constantly updating your self on latest changes each social media channel makes to improve results for business.

Poor focus on Content marketing or development of relevant content for customers, Target groups: When relevant content is not customized and posted to each channel that leads to poor engagement . Posting the same message across all channels, resulting in poor engagement. No engagement means no conversations, leading to poor relationship building and reach.

Poor reach will result in less brand or product awareness which will mean less return on investment. Unable to invest in owned assets such as email list, Info graphs, content website, rich media content. Poor user generated content and unable to create social media influencers and advocates.

Not building communities (community outreach) relevant to each channel and business will lead to: Not listening to customers in a timely manner can create negative sentiments about the brand. Lose out on chance to co-create, obtain feedback on products and services.

Create sticky customers and repeat purchases wont be possible. Carry out targeted promotions using audience insights of each channel wont be possible or not effective. Hamper growth in business, poor ROI.

Lack of Engagement Focus will lead to the following : Poor interactions on the page Existing fans leaving the page. Poor growth growth in fans. Business not visible on social media platforms Need to invest more to reach audiences and unable to create organic viral content. The human element will be missed out as well.



Failure to experiment or A/B test posts, promotions on social media channels will be a huge drawback. No strategy for lead generation, nurturing and conversion: Some activity on social media channel should enable some sort of lead generation via at least a comment on a post or sharing of the image, filling up of a lead form. To enable same you need to have a strategy to carry out such relevant activity that will result in a lead generation.

If your post does not enable sharing, caring, create a good experience, have a fun element or not consistent in branding will not help the cause. At times if comments are ignored or not responded in a timely manner same also could result to a lead nurturing opportunity missed out.

Its important that organizations and business no matter what size have the right team and attitude to implement social media strategy. There are so many free learning tools, blogs, websites, video guides and partners with whom you need to have a collaborative approach to implement a long term sustainable social media plan that will help in improving return on investment and support business growth.



(-- Dinesh Jebamani is in retail banking, product/brand management and passionate about social and digital media marketing/channels.



He is a follower of disruptive trends and passionate about innovation and creating value to society. His blog can be accessed here --)