6 Social Media Marketing techniques that you should not be using

Social media as we see it today has evolved a lot from the past and it is no more just treated as a business tool for promotional activities. As the web is gaining maturity, business owners have come to realize the fact that spamming is not the way to go forward. Though the temptation is quite tough to resist as the results are quick, rewards are great at the end if you strictly follow the best practices like building up personal relationship with the customers, offering some freebies time to time, answering questions of your customers and spending money whenever it is required. Yes, social media has matured and we need to show maturity while promoting our brand image if we are remain competitive. Here we are going to bust some common myths that can make your life a misery if you are still paying undue attention to them:

1. Social Media Presence Is Mandatory:

Not necessarily. Not all companies need social media presence. If your business model is heavily dependant on off line promotion, you can skip social media marketing altogether. However, there is no harm in having a facebook profile page or a twitter account as they are not charging you money. A barren and unimpressive presence on different social media websites is certainly not going to work. So, the best thing you can do to see better engagement with the visitors is to having presence in two or three social media sites and frequently update them so that visitors have some solid reasons to revisit them.

2. Personalization Equals to Customization:

This is probably the biggest misconception that is still shrouding the concept of social media marketing. Some people are of the opinion that a unique identity can be gained on Facebook if we manage to customize its look and feel. Definitely not. Personalization lies in the approach, how you are interacting with the people, how you are promoting your service without making it look too obvious or how you are turning things on your favor. All these together make up the concept of personalization.

3. It is about Faceless Branding:

Though some people believe that a company should not be represented by its employees specially while interacting with the customers, this is probably the most effective way you can get in touch with your prospective customers. People like to talk with real person and not with a faceless corporate mumbo jumbo.

4. Update All the Time:

Have you ever felt sorry for being subscribed to any particular newsletter program? I did. I vividly remember those days when my mail boxes were getting overloaded with promotional mails shot from a particular website, I subscribed. Finally, I got myself unsubscribed. So, the moral of the story is that you should not badger the life of your facebook fans to death by updating your fanpage 24 hours a day.  Since all your update will go into the inboxes of your facebook fans, they will have no other options but to unsubscribe.

5. Treat People as Friends and Not Fans:

Business owners are not like superstars and therefore, it makes sense if you behave like a normal person. No one will be interested in your tweets or facebook updates if you say something like this – ‘Just wake up’ or ‘nice morning’ or blah blah blah. Unless you are the Britney or Lady Gaga, people would care to like the post or retweet them. So, you need to post something that are interesting, engaging and are useful for the readers and that is all.

6. Advertise Everywhere, It is Your Place:

We are enough of this advertisement thing and are not willing to have another dose of it. So, you will be better off if you stop this practice for once and all. Try to use this powerful platform to stay connected to your targeted audience and get some real life feedback and not advertising your service like you do all the time.

Harold Splinter has been writing for WebHostingDeals.org and he has written WP Engine Review. He is a passionate designer and a reputed blogger.