7 Shocking Mistakes Killing Your Social Media Following

Like it or not, there are certain things that don’t sit well with your social media followers, especially those who expect a certain kind of civility from businesses.

So, if you are indulging in wayward practices, or are just posting content to fill up empty space with empty words, rest assured, your audience can easily make it out.

Here are 7 shocking mistakes killing your social media following.

#1. Retweeting for No Rhyme or Reason

Ordinarily, people retweet after checking out the content first. However, it has been lately observed these days that people retweet just for the heck of it. They don’t take time to check the content for relevance whatsoever. Simply retweet.

I know what you’re thinking…

How can I be so sure that people are retweeting without checking the content? It’s because you tend to find broken links with 404 errors in their retweeted content. And sometimes, the content turns out to be outdated and poorly written. Other times, the views expressed in the article are completely opposite of the beliefs held by the retweeter.

The general feeling attached to retweeted content is that it’s of high quality, therefore, it’s worth investing some time in it.

So, retweeting substandard quality stuff and even links leading to 404 pages might backfire and leave a negative impression on the audience’s mind because you are taking advantage of an audience’s time and intelligence.

#2. Cold Pitches on Twitter

Here’s yet another pesky yet common phenomenon on Twitter: cold pitches or automated pitches. The moment you follow someone, you get an automated inbox message saying hi to you. In the next moment, you’ll find a message in your inbox endorsing their products and services. This unsolicited selling portrays the sender in a bad light, as it gives off an impression that the concerned party is merely looking to build business prospects.

Typically, social media platforms are about customer engagement and getting people to like your brand. Selling comes only in the later stages when the followers are happily connecting with you.

#3. Leveraging Social Media for Promotions Only

Sure, everyone these days is using social media for sharing promotional images, video, etc. But then, too much promotional content may lead them to unfollow you or even mute your posts.

Social media shouldn’t be your primary promotion tool or a lead generation tool. Conversely, it should be your primary engagement tool. In fact, 80% of your content should be informational and engaging.

So, simply sharing promotional content is not always a good idea and might not work for your business in the longer run.

#4. Text-Heavy Content

For websites, long, heavy content is a perpetual requirement, because it drives SEO.  However, the opposite is true in the case of social media. People who spend time on social time really don’t have the time or patience to go through the long content. In fact, 80% of users don’t like reading long articles.

They would rather spend their time looking at an infographic or video content. According to a study, infographic or video generates 54% more engagement than a normal text.  Long story short, publishing long posts should be restricted to your blogs, not your social media pages.

#5. Going After Trolls

Let’s face it: The trolls aren’t going anywhere.  And, they are going to post harmful and defaming comments about you and your company.  So, how should one deal with trolls?

Calmly and politely. If you enter into an argument with them, you will be damaging your brand permanently.

Several company reputations have gone for a toss when the manager of the business sees a negative comment and responds negatively to it on social media.

This will make them and your companies look unprofessional and will urge people to disassociate themselves.

#6. Auto-Engagement Bots:

How come the moment I post something on Twitter, it’s already liked, retweeted and more, in a matter of seconds?

That’s the magic of auto-engagement bots.  And, fortunately, or unfortunately, many social media marketers are using them. These bots are so highly programmed that they will automatically like all the posts from the accounts they are following. It’s a way to tell their followers that they are interested in their content, without actually reading it.

These accounts initially might not notice what is happening but, later on, will realize what’s happening when they start seeing their posts getting likes and comments instantly, no matter the time of day they post.

So, steer clear of these bots.

#7. Creating Fake Accounts

Creating anonymous accounts on various social media sites and then using them to come up with positive reviews, going after negative reviews, or even posting ads on them defeats the very purpose of reviews.

Reviews are intended to reveal and highlight the customer point of view of your business, not your business’ point of view.

So, if your fake accounts indulge in too much of mollycoddling, and fail to offer a balanced viewpoint of your business, people can easily through the insincerity and recognize the fake account generating the buzz. This, in turn, will harm your brand’s credibility.

So, it’s best to avoid this tactic completely, no matter how tempting it might seem. Overall, by recognizing these common mistakes, your brand can understand the areas to take care to increase follower count.