The 7 Deadly Sins of Facebook Marketing

In the last few years, the power of social media in marketing a brand has become more apparent than ever. Brands are now developing invaluable relationships with their potential customers online in ways that traditional marketing has never allowed.

Also apparent however, is the colossal damage that poorly managed social media platforms can do to even the biggest of brands, and the importance of having a well designed social media strategy in place.

At Agent99 Public Relations, we are called upon regularly to create and/or execute a proactive social media plan for the brands we work with.

7 things a brand must never do on Facebook:

1. Go off point
It can be tempting to try and garner attention or promote interaction from followers by posting quirky, funny or controversial content on your brand’s Facebook or Twitter platform, but unless the content closely aligns with the brand’s culture, this is almost always a bad idea. It’s important to remember that your brand’s social media platforms are essentially business tools. Every time you post something, you need to bear in mind the content’s purpose. What do you want to achieve? Is there a call to action? Don’t lose vision.

2. Go overboard with tagging strategies
Employing a ‘tagging’ or ‘share’ strategy for your brand’s Facebook page can be instrumental in both taking content viral and increasing page likes, but it can also be instrumental in annoying the hell out of your current and potential followers. If you must use this strategy, do it carefully and not too often.

3. Use Facebook as a free advertisement bulletin
While it’s always important to keep fans updated on brand related news and educate potential customers on the benefits of your products, avoid using your brand’s Facebook page to consistently shout online offers and sales discounts. Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing is all about talking to consumers rather than at them. It’s about creating a personality or voice behind a brand that resonates with consumers on a personal level and creates a two-way dialogue that promotes and nourishes organic conversation around the brand itself. Continuously spewing ‘hard-sell’ content at your fans will only push them away.

4. Be boooring
This one is pretty obvious. Boring content will do everything to deter current fans from interacting with your brand’s Facebook page and nothing to entice new followers. Get creative.

5. Let it rot
Marketing and PR in the webosphere is getting extraordinarily competitive, and more often than not, all it takes is a poor online presence for a brand’s credibility to fall to the wayside. Think to a time when you’ve tried to search for a business online only to find it’s not there. Didn’t do much for its appeal did it? The same goes for a brand’s presence on Facebook. Starting a Facebook page for your brand and then leaving it to decay screams obsolete. If you want your brand to be perceived as fresh and cutting-edge, don’t let its Facebook page rot in cyberspace.

6. Ignore or delete negative feedback
Nothing destroys brand credibility faster than ignoring or deleting negative comments and feedback posted online. In fact, the only thing worse than a negative comment is a deleted negative comment. Time and time again big brands come under scrutiny for just this, and it doesn’t blow over quickly. And it isn’t just terrible customer service, it looks dodgy. It also defeats the beauty of the open, two-way conversation that is allowed to occur on social media. The best approach is to simply address it. Apologize. Offer a resolution. Just don’t neglect it.

7. Be a Facebook ‘sugar daddy’
Using giveaways, contests and lucky draws to entice people to ‘like’ your page or share or interact with content can be a great idea. Sometimes. Overdoing it however, will only leave you with legions of non-loyal followers or fans looking to win free stuff.

Good luck with your social media activity! And remember, if done right, social media is another great public channel to connect with your consumer and showcase your brand’s personality and messages.

About Sharon Zeev Poole, Director of Agent99 PR:
Having worked all over the world on high profile brands such as Warner Bros. Pictures and Starbucks Coffee for over 13 years, Sharon founded Agent99 Public Relations in January 2007. An agency built on strong strategic and creative credentials, Agent99 is in constant pursuit of the unconventional, routinely implementing bold brand campaigns that capture national attention in unexpected ways.

Committed to achieving unbeatable results, Sharon is always innovating to keep the agency one step ahead of the competition. Today, Agent99 represents an enviable list of lifestyle, consumer and business-to-business clients across the food and wine, travel, health, beauty, online and non-for-profit spaces.