While more and more brands have started embracing social media, it does not necessarily mean they are social. Thinking of social media as yet another marketing communication channel is playing down its immense potential. A couple of basic things about social media brands should understand are –

• It’s an engagement medium that’s not just meant for publishing marketing messages
• It can be harnessed for gathering brand intelligence

Brands unable to grasp these two things are yet to realize that social media is a two way communication medium. It’s a virtual habitat where it’s imperative for brands to engage with the audience in order for them to thrive. Allow me to highlight some of the common mistakes –

Brands new to social media tend to make this mistake. While it may sound logical to keep a steady focus on one network, social media users are accustomed to variety. Most of them have presence on more than one social media network. It therefore make little sense for brands to be conservative in their choice of networks.

Although a brand may decide to focus on just one network, brand conversations tend to happen on multiple social media networks. So if a brand chooses Facebook over all other networks to promote itself, it’s quite likely that some users may talk about it on Twitter too. Such users might want their queries answered on Twitter because that’s where they tend to be more active. This may very well be a lost engagement opportunity.

Some of the most common ways in which brands behave inconsistently are –

Unless your brand’s goal is to come across as erratic (it may work for certain brands), it’s advisable to keep posting new engaging updates every day of the week. That’s how you get your audience hooked and eager to engage with you.

You don’t want to come across as partial to anybody on social media. Every unique conversation is worthy of a response. Nothing screams ‘ANTI-SOCIAL’ like a brand who doesn’t bother to respond. A lot of times this happens because brands simply fail to discover conversations directed at them. The best way to ensure that no conversation is lost is to use a social media listening tool that’s equipped with Social CRM (video). This will help the social media response team to manage responses and track progress on each one of them.

No social media user has got the time to wait an entire day for a brand to get back to it. Avid users expect quick replies to their queries especially when they have the tendency to escalate into complaints. Not doing so can end up badly as aggrieved users don’t hesitate to tarnish brand reputation. Social listening tools like Konnect Social gives brands the option to benchmark their response time.