7 Ways Brands Can Awkwardly Miss the Mark

Written by: Marta Drevniak | Maxwell PR

A strong social media strategy is made up of three important elements: content, paid social (promoted posts and ads) and community management.

Over the past several years the first two have gotten a ton of attention, as they should. Your content helps showcase your brand’s look and voice while ads bring that content in front of the right people… potential new customers for your products or service. While important, the focus on content, promoted posts and ads can often overshadow the community management component, without which, you are essentially spitting into the wind. Ads provide visibility and content showcases your brand’s pretty face, but community management strategy is where your personality comes through, which is how you form real, lasting connections.

Here are 7 community management faux pas to avoid:

Direct message (DM) fans with promo code offers without them requesting anything.

Ask if you can share an image showcasing your products when the post copy relates to a personal hardship.

Like 10 photos from the same fan all at once… can you say “stalker?”

Comment asking a user to follow you. Just don’t do that. Ever!

Avoid following consumer fans because you’re worried about your follower-to-following ratio.

Ignore fan questions because you don’t have time or a good answer.

Only respond to questions and negative comments.

So what should brands do?

Aside from the exact opposite of the above: act like a person. For people to give you their time and energy in the form of social engagement, they want to feel like someone is listening and authentically interested in what they have to say. Nobody likes a one-sided relationship. Consumers today know there is a person behind the brand – and generally, that’s a good thing.