B2B Marketing Blog | Webbiquity

How to Avoid Social Media Mistakes

Despite the widespread adoption of social media in the marketing mix, many companies still use this medium less than effectively. This is perhaps not surprising given that, according to recent research by Business.com, 40% of b2b marketers have been using social media as a marketing tool for less than a year, and 60% spend less than 20% of their time on it. This lack of experience can lead to several common, but avoidable mistakes.

One of the most common mistakes is expecting instant results. While the current tough economy is forcing marketers to do more with less and focus on productivity, social media isn’t like advertising: it requires a sustained commitment over time to build an online reputation as a helpful, knowledgeable resource, the kind of company your prospective customers will want to do business with. Giving short shrift to social media activities now, because it may not have an immediate impact on the bottom line, is short sighted. B2b companies that build a social media presence now will be best positioned for growth once the economy rebounds.

An even bigger mistake is ignoring the synergies between different forms and types of social media. Media sharing sites, social networking profiles, blogs and online reputation management tools are all part of a larger strategy of web presence optimization, maximizing your online presence through various forms of media and most importantly, interlinking these points of presence to maximize your company’s visibility in search.

For more guidance on maximizing the impact social media marketing can have for your organization, see 8 Common Mistakes in Social Media Marketing on the HubSpot blog. Avoiding these mistakes will help improve your organization’s online presence and website traffic now, and position it well to thrive once the economy turns around.

Tags: b2b social media, HubSpot, Social Media Marketing, social media mistakes, social networking

This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 7:36 am and is filed under Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.