Recently I was asked a great question: What were the top couple of mistakes made when using social media.
In my response, I only mentioned a couple, but it led me to think about several other mistakes to avoid with social media.
1) Trying to use social media for making sales.
This is the #1 mistake.
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all about making contacts, opening doors, gaining trust and credibility, and building those all important relationships.
Once you've gained your viewers trust and you have a relationship with them, you will be the one they turn to when they are ready to do business.
Wouldn't you rather do business with someone you have grown to know and trust? Relationships first...
business second.
2) Going into social media without clear objectives.
What are you wanting to accomplish? So many times, businesses will just jump in without knowing what their objectives are for using social media.
Do you want to gain your targeted audience's attention? Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or your website? Enhance our practice's patient services? Maybe you want to grow your practice's email list...
what's your objective? Know what it is you are trying to accomplish.
3) Not knowing how to listen and engage effectively.
To attract and engage targeted followers effectively, you need to have several elements in place.
Here are a few of them: Be clear on your target market and be familiar with the social networks they prefer to use the most.
Let me put that into perspective.
If you work out of 3 operatories and your patient is seated in OP 3 and you're seated in Op 2 waiting for that patient, you aren't going to get anything accomplished.
You're not where your patient is.
So if you are on Twitter and your target is on Facebook...
see the importance? Go where the "eyeballs" are...
Know and be seen where your target market is! You must have a strategy and a plan for implementing your strategy in place..
FIRST.
You will want to have a Practice Social Media policy in place.
In other words, how will you and your employees handle social media in your practice? Are you noticing how all of these are building on one another? 4) Becoming distracted.
Social media is a powerful marketing too, but if not careful can be time consuming and become overwhelming.
Invitations to connect...
invitations to events...
join this group...
attend this meeting...
It's no wonder after awhile many pages just sit there gathering "virtural dust".
You MUST learn to stay focused.
Remember your goals and your objectives.
Stick to your game plan! 5) Spreading yourself too thin.
Knowledge of the difference social platforms, the different tools like plugins, applications, widgets, etc and the time involved.
Time is a BIG factor! When first entering the arena, you might want to join one of the social platforms...
maybe Twitter or Facebook.
Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on the next.
Either way, there are some short cuts you can use to help when you are pressed for time.
One of the biggest helps, is pre-scheduling your tweets using social platforms like HootSuite or SocialOomph.
Both allow you to schedule your tweets into the future.
Hourly, daily, monthly...
whenever.
It's a great way to delegate some of the time involved.
Another is to link up content to RSS Feeds.
You can also set up and create Autoresponder messages.
These are messages you create to go out at specific dates and times.
Sort of like having your business on Auto-pilot.
In my response, I only mentioned a couple, but it led me to think about several other mistakes to avoid with social media.
1) Trying to use social media for making sales.
This is the #1 mistake.
Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all about making contacts, opening doors, gaining trust and credibility, and building those all important relationships.
Once you've gained your viewers trust and you have a relationship with them, you will be the one they turn to when they are ready to do business.
Wouldn't you rather do business with someone you have grown to know and trust? Relationships first...
business second.
2) Going into social media without clear objectives.
What are you wanting to accomplish? So many times, businesses will just jump in without knowing what their objectives are for using social media.
Do you want to gain your targeted audience's attention? Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or your website? Enhance our practice's patient services? Maybe you want to grow your practice's email list...
what's your objective? Know what it is you are trying to accomplish.
3) Not knowing how to listen and engage effectively.
To attract and engage targeted followers effectively, you need to have several elements in place.
Here are a few of them: Be clear on your target market and be familiar with the social networks they prefer to use the most.
Let me put that into perspective.
If you work out of 3 operatories and your patient is seated in OP 3 and you're seated in Op 2 waiting for that patient, you aren't going to get anything accomplished.
You're not where your patient is.
So if you are on Twitter and your target is on Facebook...
see the importance? Go where the "eyeballs" are...
Know and be seen where your target market is! You must have a strategy and a plan for implementing your strategy in place..
FIRST.
You will want to have a Practice Social Media policy in place.
In other words, how will you and your employees handle social media in your practice? Are you noticing how all of these are building on one another? 4) Becoming distracted.
Social media is a powerful marketing too, but if not careful can be time consuming and become overwhelming.
Invitations to connect...
invitations to events...
join this group...
attend this meeting...
It's no wonder after awhile many pages just sit there gathering "virtural dust".
You MUST learn to stay focused.
Remember your goals and your objectives.
Stick to your game plan! 5) Spreading yourself too thin.
Knowledge of the difference social platforms, the different tools like plugins, applications, widgets, etc and the time involved.
Time is a BIG factor! When first entering the arena, you might want to join one of the social platforms...
maybe Twitter or Facebook.
Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on the next.
Either way, there are some short cuts you can use to help when you are pressed for time.
One of the biggest helps, is pre-scheduling your tweets using social platforms like HootSuite or SocialOomph.
Both allow you to schedule your tweets into the future.
Hourly, daily, monthly...
whenever.
It's a great way to delegate some of the time involved.
Another is to link up content to RSS Feeds.
You can also set up and create Autoresponder messages.
These are messages you create to go out at specific dates and times.
Sort of like having your business on Auto-pilot.