For all of the good that social media can do to help promote your business products and services, it can also harm them if you are not careful and do not take the time to learn about how to use each tool properly.

So what are some of the techniques to avoid when using social media?

Here is a good list:

1. spamming - people don’t like spam email and they certainly will not like it if you are spamming them on Twitter or Facebook.    You are there to join the conversation, to listen and to become a recognized expert in your field and that takes time.  Don’t try to sell on the first day.
2. too high expectations - this ties in with #1 that you cannot just jump in and start marketing your company right away, it will take time to build a good reputation online so don’t expect instantaneous results
3. not wanting to hear the negative - online, people will be negative about you at some point and you are just going to have to deal with it, but you should also view it as an opportunity to fix an issue and turn that negative comment into a positive by working with that customer to turn their view point and their comments back toward helping your company.
4. using a one size fits all approach - what works on Twitter will not work on Facebook and what works on Facebook will not work on LinkedIn - it is that simple.    Don’t try it because each medium serves a different purpose and a different audience.   We can help you research which social media platform(s) will serve your company best and advise you on which ones to avoid.
5. posting at the wrong time - if you are going to post (especially something about your business), you should try to post just before lunch-time since most people will be using social media during their lunch hour.  Posting late at night is going make your audience much smaller - but do keep those ‘important’ posts to that mid-morning time frame to gain the largest audience.

Let me know if you have other problems that you believe should be added to the list.

See you online!