Boo! Social Media Tactics That May Scare Away Business

by on October 20, 2011 at 8:49 am in Blog, Holiday, social media

By Cara Friedman

Now is the time of year where kids tell spooky stories, dress up like monsters, and enjoy all things scary! While this may be fun for kids, it is not the most fun for businesses. Everyone in the business world has heard horror stories of companies not using social media correctly. If you want to avoid scaring away business, try not to avoid these spooky business tactics often seen in social media:

Being a Ghost

When a person writes on your fan page or tweets at your company (whether positive or negative) you should always respond. Ignoring your fans and followers makes you a ghost in the social space. The more you try to ignore your fans, the louder they will get. Scarily enough, 70% of companies ignore customer complaints on Twitter. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make them go away! Make sure your brand is listening and responding!

The Rude Monster

Ever heard of the saying the customer is always right? Well, that saying is still true. Never get defensive or rude at a customer in the social space. Not only are you being rude to this individual, but you are also broadcasting  your bad attitude to the rest of the world! This seems like an obvious one right? Well, sadly enough I have seen it done and it is not pretty! Check out this example with Nestle to see what I mean.

Blood Sucking Salesman

Your social media is a place to build a community, engage with your fans, and share great content. It is not a place for you to be constantly promoting your own products! There is nothing more tempting than having access to 800 million people who could potentially buy your product, but the realities are that nobody will be interested in your brand if you are constantly promoting yourself. Dan Seitz of uproxx wrote a great article on how to promote yourself on Facebook without making everyone hate you. I suggest you check out these tips before turning into a blood sucking salesman.

Need a straight jacket?

The reality is that more than one person may be posting on or monitoring your social networks. However, you have to remember that you are still one brand, with one voice. Multiple people leads to the risk of multiple voices and that can make your brand look… well, crazy! It is important to have well trained individuals in control of your brands social networks. Always remember that you are speaking as your brand, not as yourself!

What do you think are some of the scariest social media techniques? Share them in the comments below!

 

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  • http://lomaymi.tumblr.com/ Luis O Maymí

    You forgot the spammers (or sales stalkers). God I hate those. People that come out of nowhere invading your websites or social accounts with some lame comment, usually with a blood sucking salesman mentality.
    “Ignoring your fans and followers makes you a ghost in the social space”
    That a funny analogy. A ghost that, when it decides to come out in the open, scares the heck out of you.

  • Anonymous

    That actually made me love Nestle a little more. 

  • Anonymous

    Excellent article thank you…people need these reminders.

  • Anonymous

    Ohhh…”The more you try to ignore your fans, the louder they will get. Scarily enough, 70% of companies ignore customer complaints on Twitter.” Great post – I am sharing!!

  • http://twitter.com/DanBennett74 Daniel John Bennett

    The rude monster paragraph is brilliant. Long before any
    social networks, I was a general manager of a high street supermarket. I had
    a lady come over to me by the checkouts and stuff rotten cheese into my face
    and mouth. She roared “it’s gone off before the use by date you ******
    *******.” Effing & blinding, shouting like some crazed paranoid
    schizophrenic with a personality and anger management problem.. There was
    mouldy cheese all over my chin and around my lips.  This is still on a
    videotape reel somewhere.
     

    Now I’ve met some Managers and watched them deal with
    customers rudely and abruptly in person. This gives such a poor impression to
    anyone who can see or hear the episode. On a social network this is multiplied,
    magnified to masses of people forever. These walls are permanent. 
    No matter what the customer has done, the defecation and urination of
    human waste on the floor of my business unit was a regular occurrence. I would
    never get too angry or lose temper with any customer.

    A thief, well, that was different.  I was all for removing them out of the nearest
    fire exit physically without following the politically correct procedure. I’d
    say to the smack head take me to court, for not following the correct ‘catch a shoplifter red-handed procedure’, and compare your Criminal Records Bureau
    sheet to mine and my business unit. You tw**

    The key message here is the fact that on a social network, a persons wording is so important. Potentially millions of people can see the content. Warmth and the offer of a free gift  (a bottle of red wine) was my technique I used on the woman who stuffed rotten cheese in my face, and any other customer with a problem. On a social network the impression you give, can be seen by millions. At the checkouts that morning there were about twenty people in the vicinity.

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