#1 – Share Things Only From Your Site
If social media is used only to promote your site and nothing else, you’re being completely self-absorbed and missing the point. Users can just as easily subscribe to an email list or visit the site directly for updates from your site.
Be sure to share things such as useful links to obscure and helpful industry news, upcoming events, or interesting articles. Social media is a way to connect one on one – don’t make it a one-way communication channel.
#2 – Post The Same Thing, With The Same Title, On Every Social Media Platform
This is the “I want as little as effort as possible” social media approach. You’ve seen this before – something is posted to Twitter, and then Facebook, and then LinkedIn and then to… All of the posts have the same title with the same link. Understand that each social media channel has a different audience and speak to them uniquely, or better yet, cut down your social channels to only a handful of meaningful ones.
#3 – Being Too Sales-y
Nobody likes the disruptive hard sell. Stop trying to work an angle.
Adweek reported that 56% of users have unfollowed an account for being too sales-y. Have significantly more useful content for followers than a sales pitch.
#4 – Dead Social Media Accounts
If the last post you had was 234 days ago, you can be sure following won’t grow – unless it’s those weird accounts that connect to everyone so you’ll see that spammy link in their profile. Understand that social media has a place in sales, marketing, and customer service and find ways to use it.
#5 – Post The Same Thing Everyone Else Posts
If you follow industry leaders (and you should!), you shouldn’t share every post they share. Share the ones that really resonated with you and discuss why with your followers. Work hard to find obscure and insightful content from sites that need the traffic. Subscribe to weekly emails that share content and queue those up in your social media platforms. People will follow you because you are consistently finding gems.
#6 – Never Responding To Followers
You’ve worked hard to establish your organization and improve your following – why won’t you respond? Conversations are meant to be had on social media. Shock them with attention and be resourceful in your replies. Make those that respond become fans.
#7 – Being Spammy And Posting To Often
There are unspoken, acceptable frequencies to post. Buffer conducted a study and found that about once per day for Facebook, and three times per day for Twitter works best.
Posting more often (with the same title, to the same article, on every social media channel), is just plain spammy.
#8 – Being Way Off-Topic Too Often
If a social media channel ventures out from the safe confines of your industry and company to stay current with trends or culture it’s a good thing – especially for common things such as holidays, events, or viral trends. But if you stay outside of your industry, then things get dicey and you can lose your focus.
#9 – Sharing Opinions On Hot-Button Topics
This bit of common sense just has to be said – weighing in on personal or political views shouldn’t occur in an organizations social media.
You can’t put the lid back on again and things will get out of hand very quickly. But, if you want to push your followers away, go ahead.
What Makes You Unfollow On Social Media?
It’s your turn to sound off in the comments – what mistakes do you see organizations make that make you unfollow them?
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