If your organization has been using social media for any length of time, you are probably aware of most of the “do’s and don’t’s” for these platforms. But regardless of how well you think you’re doing, are you making any of these mistakes?
- Not having a plan or social media strategy. Is your organization “reactive” or “proactive” with social media? If you tend to be more reactive, then you probably either don’t have a plan or you’re not sticking to it. Social media should be used to help meet organizational goals, which is why a plan is so important.
- Not having a specific look/feel. Social media should reflect your brand. Your posts should have a distinct voice and theme. Your posts should be relevant to your brand.
- Your social media profiles are incomplete. This is probably one of the easiest tasks to complete, yet many organizations fail to complete their social media bios. Your profile will be read in just a few short seconds, so it’s crucial to get across who you are and what you do. Be sure to use hashtags for Twitter and Instagram profiles where appropriate. Don’t forget that social media profiles can rank in search, so be sure to fill in all the information requested.
- Lack of audience understanding. If you don’t know who your audience is, most likely your social media efforts won’t be very effective. Everything from scheduling posts at times when your followers are most likely to be active to posting on topics your followers most want to see is knowledge you should have. Look at your metrics to see what’s working.
- Over-posting/under-posting. Your social media followers want to hear from you but you don’t want to overwhelm them with too many posts. But you also want to be present. Use the metrics from each platform to see when your posts have the most engagement and schedule your posts around those times.
- Not using available tools. All social media platforms have their own tools that provide metrics, help with various tasks and more. These tools help you learn more about the individual platform and explore the various features. These tools can help you get the most out of your social media efforts.
- Being unresponsive. The whole point of social media is to be social and engage with your followers. If you don’t respond to comments and especially complaints, your followers are going to think you don’t care. You certainly don’t want to argue with trolls, but legitimate complaints should be addressed. In healthcare organizations, complaints about care or treatment for a specific patient must be addressed offline due to HIPAA requirements, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore these complaints – just invite the person to contact you offline and give them a phone number or email address.