Marketing

You Might Be a Social Media Spammer (And Not Know It)

There is a fine line between increasing your social media presence and being a social media spammer.

It’s only natural you want to promote your company on social media – that’s what everyone always says to do, right?

“Update your social media profiles with new posts at least once a day and watch the leads come flying in.”

While that’s good advice – there’s a key caveat missing (isn’t there always).

Quality trumps quantity, every damn time.

I get it! You're passionate about what you do. Wanting to share it with those who need it is important to you (and your sales pipeline).

You want to shout about your fantastic offers and help fix the challenges faced by your clients.

You want to share your services with the world, network with like-minded business owners, and connect with potential clients to create a profitable business for yourself and your team.

But within all that enthusiasm, you might accidentally become a social media spammer.

If you don’t approach your social media sharing in the right way, your messages could be perceived as spammy and annoying.

All those people you’re trying to help? They’ll unlike, unfollow, and avoid, avoid, avoid.

In fact, 51% of social media users said they would unfollow brands on social media if they posted irritating posts. 27% said they would mark/report the brand and page as spam and block them.

No one likes a pushy salesperson!

To help you avoid becoming that person, we’re going to show you how to avoid your marketing efforts getting muted – and get potential customers interacting with your content like you know they should.

The golden rule: it’s not all about you

When you’re writing your next social media post, take a second to ask yourself: “Did I make it about myself or about my clients?”

If your post isn’t focused on your clients, then don’t hit send!

Your clients don’t care about you or your business (initially). What they care about is solving their problems and challenges.

Everything you post goes through a filter with your audience. If they can’t see what’s in it for them, they’ll ignore and continue scrolling.

If they don’t care about what they’re reading, then they’re going to consider it spam.

You can share information about you, your company, and even your staff now and then, but most of your content has to be about your clients, their problems, hopes, fears, and challenges.

Try to keep the following questions in mind when writing content for social media:

1. Does it solve your clients’ problems?

Are you writing a straight-up sales piece?

Social media feeds are littered with loud businesses trying to sell their products and services. What does this mean? People will scroll past anything that doesn't immediately catch their attention – if you're too sales-y, people will skip.

That is why it’s important to address the problems of your clients. Informational, educational posts are much better at selling than a straight-up ad.

If they see a post that can solve an issue they're having; they're more likely to stop and read it instead of quickly scrolling past.

2. Is it relevant?

If you’ve ever been tagged in a post that has nothing to do with you, or forwarded on one of those awful corporate chain emails, then you know it’s an annoying waste of your time.

Who wants to read about something that’s irrelevant to them? Nobody!

Whenever you're creating a social media update for your company, check whether your posting is relevant to your industry and your customers' needs and wants. If it's not relevant, then it's going to come across as a load of spam – and create a negative connotation of your company in your reader's mind.

3. Is it easily consumed?

Your users will have a preferred means of consuming your content.

Whether it's through video, blog posts, infographics, or podcasts – you need to figure it out which one they prefer so you can give your audience the type of content they like to consume best, which will keep them coming back for more.

Are you skipping the first date?

Just like dating, there are certain rules in place when it comes to connecting with someone on social media.

You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you without going on a date first (or maybe you would… but that’s a completely different issue for another blog post) – so don’t add someone on the likes of LinkedIn and send them an instant sales pitch.

It’s just plain rude!

I’m not joking when I say that you need your new connection’s consent before approaching them with a list of services. Even if you’re linking to high-quality written content, if they didn’t ask for it then don’t send it to them – it’s only going to make you look spammy.

If you want to avoid all this, try to build up a close relationship with your audience. You can easily ask if it's okay that you share some interesting content with them.

When they say yes, you’ll know they’re interested in what you have to offer. They’ll consume the content you share and will appreciate that you respected them. The result? A good foundation for a future working relationship together.

Are you engaging in a two-way conversation?

Would you walk up to somebody you’ve never met and introduce yourself like; “Hello, how are you? Buy my stuff!”?

Of course not! That would be incredibly rude. So don’t do it on social media platforms either – because it’s spam!

If you don't want to be pointed out as a spammer, then engage with your prospects first. Talk to them, answer their questions, and reply to their comments on your posts.

Your audience wants to be seen and acknowledged.

They’re more than just a prospect!

A quick, simple response to a comment goes a long way.

So, instead of drowning your audience with a bunch of sales information, post with the intention of generating more engagement.

If you’re not getting any engagement with your audience, then you’re not having conversations. This means you’re not building relationships or establishing trust.

People buy from brands they trust, so start having more conversations and get involved with your audience.

Would you consider it spam?

One of the best ways to figure out if what you’re posting is spam or not is to try to read it from your audiences’ point of view.

If it popped up on your newsfeed under another company’s name, would you consider it spam?

If the answer is yes – it’s time to hit delete and come up with something better.

Ready to get your company the professional online presence it deserves and never be considered spam again?

Here at Branding & Beyond, we'll help you define your brand, create a gorgeous website, and implement online marketing that will make sales easier for the long haul.

We’ll find what already exists within your company and craft it into a verbal and visual identity that will help your business grow.

When you work with us, we’ll guide you through our unique total brand alignment process and help you build a solid brand foundation to implement a marketing plan that actually delivers.

Build your brand foundation today.

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Tracy O’Shaughnessy Founder / Lead Brand Strategist of Branding & Beyond

Tracy and her team help firms in and around the B2B building trades look and sound credible online and off.

She has been in the industry since the early '90s and is tired of seeing fantastic firms struggle, blend in, and get bypassed by prospects who judge them solely on the outdated information found online.

Branding & Beyond's mission is to solve real business problems and build the brand foundation clients need to get noticed and hired.

You can find Tracy on Linkedin and here on this blog.