Catharine P. Taylor wrote a great blog entry on the 8 ways to ruin your business’s/organization’s social media strategy. First of all, there should be a solid strategy in place. Your company needs to know who you are going after, what sites they are on, and what exactly you hope to accomplish before venturing out into the world of social media. You should also have a timeline in place and a way of tracking metrics. After all that is done, the work is not over because it’s important to maintain the social media presence and NOT mess it up. Here are the ways Catharine Taylor says it is possible to ruin a social media strategy:

1. Pretend you can do without it. – Ms. Taylor is yet another source proclaiming that social media is not a fad and that it is indeed here to stay. It would be a huge mistake to pretend this new channel of communication does not exist. It is much like when the telephone was invented and telemarketing was born. Now that social media is here (forever and ever more) it is time to integrate a social media marketing plan into your company’s or organization’s agenda.
2. Play down the costs. – Yes, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are free for everyone to utilize but using these platforms properly and efficiently takes time and skill. In the long run however this investment of time can be worth it. These social media sites can be used for customer service, public relations, and market research, all projects that may have previously been outsourced.
3. Act like you own the conversation. – As quoted from the article, “Just as you wouldn’t walk into a cocktail party and start bragging about yourself, you shouldn’t just jump into the conversation in social media channels either,” according to Paul Cheney aka The Social Media Handyman. Listen first then ease your way into the conversation. Talk about things that don’t relate directly to your company and your business goals first to gain credibility and trust . Once that trust is gained then you increase the chances of people being more receptive to your business offers.
4. Being afraid to give employees control over social media communications – If you already trust employees to communicate with current and potential customers via phone and email then you should trust them to provide adequate customer service through sites such as Twitter as well. Zappos employs a very successful and efficient social media strategy that empowers their employees. Employees are given individual twitter accounts and blogs on the Zappos website. There are hundreds of Zappos employees tweeting on behalf of the company.
5. Assume you have little to learn. – You can learn a lot by listening to conversations that are going on within your target market. Dell was happily chugging along as a business until the company discovered “Dell Hell”, blog posts dedicated solely to Dell customer service horror stories. Thanks to this discovery Dell learned that they needed to better coordinate technical support and customer service to resolve issues more quickly. Since Dell has become active in social media themselves the company has brought in over $3 million in revenue through Twitter alone.
6. Take negative feedback personally. – There will always be people who will have something negative to say about your brand or company. You can’t take it personally but you can use it as an opportunity to hear things from other people’s perspective and address any real problems directly. Comcast has been on the receiving end of some negative talk about their customer service in the past but rather then hide from the issue or neglect it they have confronted it head on by opening a Twitter account and using it as a customer relationship management tool.
7. Fret about return on investment. - There is ROI with social media, it just may be tougher to measure than traditional marketing tactics. Just watch this video or read this article for proof of the potential ROI and tips on how to gain a near accurate measurement of it.
8. Underestimate the power of seemingly small efforts. – Social media is more about establishing real connections with current and potential customers than it is about achieving specific business goals. People need interaction and assurance from brands to make a real connection these days given all the different options available in the marketplace. In the Catharine Taylor’s blog post, one company’s president acknowledges that he would do a lot to build his brand regardless of immediate economic payback.

All of these mistakes are easy enough to avoid and with time, dedication, and persistence your social media strategy and marketing efforts can pay off.