Building a successful brand on social media is an absolute must these days for businesses of all types. Whether you’re a multinational entity or a local small business, having a social media presence helps generate awareness for your products and services. Fans will help further promote your business by sharing content and experiences with their friends and family. However, it’s not just all upside when it comes to social media business management: there are definitely some traps and mistakes that can hurt your business. We’ll review a few of the biggest and baddest mistakes a business can make when using social media to promote itself.

Arguing With Critics

All too often, those who have a problem with your brand or business will take to social media to express discontent. Sometimes, this is due to a bad experience with a purchase or engagement. In other cases, it’s merely troublemakers who want to make a scene. The worst thing businesses can do is to begin pinging servers with commentary and replies that make themselves look petty. It is one thing to respond amicably to a criticism or complaint, but quite another to go round and round with someone who is clearly not going to be satisfied. Avoid these confrontations when possible and you’ll save your brand from a lot of potentially bad PR.

Building an Faceless Entity

Social media is all about interaction, emotion, entertainment and personality. Businesses that do well on social media have at least one thing in common: they create personalized brands that make people smile. All too often, businesses go for a “professional” approach that avoids any sense of informality or personality. While being professional is recommended in many areas, you want your social media presence to be light-hearted, informative and entertaining. By including personal stories from supporters and customers, entertaining videos and posts that share emotions, and other forms of engagement that connect with people, you’ll avoid being a faceless, soulless entity that doesn’t generate any meaningful amount of activity.

Talking About Yourself Too Much

At the end of the day, a business or brand on social media should strive to make the experience about the consumer as much as possible. Whether you’re selling something or offering information, the need to be engaging with an audience that is being bombarded with funny videos, emotional status updates and other forms of commentary is paramount. If your brand spends all of its time talking about itself – what it’s selling, what changes are coming in the future, and other comparable happenings – then very few people are going to find interest. Above all else, you must find a way to incorporate your business into a broader story that involves the faces and stories of those who it services. If you fail to do this, then you’re simply going to be pinging servers with a bunch of noise that nobody bothers reading.

If you can avoid heated arguments, boring speeches about yourself and a dreadfully generic social media presence, then you can do great things for your brand via social media. What are some other challenges you see your brand facing on social media? Let us know below!