4 social media marketing mistakes to avoid

The key elements are freshness and interactivity, so steer clear of these pitfalls.

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To avoid a public relations disaster and keep your followers and fans happy, make sure you aren’t committing any of these social media sins.

1. Not responding to fans/followers in a timely fashion. When you have thousands or even millions of fans, it can be difficult if not impossible to respond to each individual inquiry. This doesn’t mean that you should ignore your community completely.

If you notice that several people are asking the same question (e.g. “Is your site down?”), take a proactive approach and address the manner in a status update or tweet. That way, you answer that question without having to write out 500 different replies. Also, if you have a particularly frustrated fan, it may be best to message them individually instead of resolving the issue in a public forum. In short, stop the problem before it blows up.

2. Posting the same content across all social networks. Each social network requires a different approach. For instance, a huge status update on Facebook obviously wouldn’t fit in the 140-character limit that Twitter imposes. Also, many of the people who like you on Facebook and Google+ probably also follow you on Twitter, so you’re just spamming them over and over again with duplicate content.

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