Social Media Mistakes a Brand Should Avoid - 5 Experts Share Their Views

When you jump into a platform that is buzzing with tremendous activity and is highly vibrant, you tend to get overwhelmed. At times this makes you commit mistakes that you otherwise would not have done.

Social media is one such platform which at times makes a brand goof up in more ways than one. While some come up with absurd twitter hashtags, others get flamed for being snobbish to their community.

To help you avoid these pitfalls, we reached out to 5 well known experts from the Indian social media industry and asked for their views. Here is what they have to say:

Sanjay Mehta. Co-founder, Social Wavelength

One of the oft repeated mistakes I have seen is where social media communication has been thought of as one more broadcast message. The brand goes out communicating it's messages, not concerned nor bothered about what the audience is saying, or wants to converse about. Essentially, speaking but not listening. That is monologue, not dialogue / conversation.

The other mistake often made, is to take a campaign approach to social media. Social media is not like a marketing campaign, it is an ongoing and continuous part of the business, and needs to be strategised and executed accordingly

Praval Singh. Manager - Previously: Co-founder, Media Redefined.

One of the biggest mistakes which brands are making is by try hard to go social - buying ads, hiring agencies, running sweepstakes, etc. without focusing on the quality & support of their product offering. Social Media (like other mediums) is a medium to reach out to your customers, plus it gives power to them to talk against you. Hence, brands should focus on their product and services before they wish to have a great presence on social media space.

Harshil Karia. Founder, FoxyMoron

Don't treat the medium as a 1 way communication medium. Don't leave messages there and expect them to be absorbed. Read more than you write. Listen more than you speak. Sense more than you action.

All these conversations in social media are actually guiding you to bigger brand and communication insights than you can imagine.

Nimesh Shah. Head Maven, Windchimes Communications. 

Don’t just jump into social media the moment you get a brand brief from client.

Ensure that everyone in your team who is going to be working on that account has clearly understood the business objectives and is using those to plan their social media strategy and execution.

Gautam Ghosh. Blogger, Speaker and Social Media Thought Leader.

Social media response to customers views and opinions are great, however brands need to follow up ‘listening’ and ‘response’ by on the ground action. Only responding to people when they vent on social media is a strategy for disaster. Brands should have an integrated customer response strategy, and need to map people not just socially but across their other channels. For that they need to integrate their marketing, sales and customer service data.

Well, the experts have spoken. Hopefully these tips will help you avoid the path which has resulted in the demise of so many brands out there.