In the business world, social media can be a great tool to use to promote your products and services. Social media sites can help you build relationships with potential customers, and find ways to generate more sales. At the same time, many small business owners make some common mistakes along the way when using social media. Here are five ways that small business owners get it wrong when using social media.

Not Sticking With It

One of the biggest problems that entrepreneurs have with social media is that they don’t stick with it long enough to make a difference. Many of them get very excited about the possibility of social media when they first learn about it. They sign up for accounts with all of the different providers out there. They start posting several times a day and getting many friends or followers. The problem is that they just get away from it after a short period of time. If you want to be successful with social media promotion, you have to look at it as a long-term process.

Not Listening Enough

One of the problems with traditional forms of marketing is that it is a one-way means of communication. You put out a marketing message and your customers can choose to listen to it. They do not have the option of providing any meaningful feedback or responding to that message directly. With social media, this is not the case. People can communicate with you directly. As an entrepreneur, it is up to you to listen to your customers instead of just sending out messages all the time. It can be tempting to put messages out without taking the time to listen to anyone else, but this is usually a big mistake that will cost you.

Not Being Professional

Another common mistake that business owners make is that they do not conduct themselves in a professional manner on social media sites. They argue with other people on social media sites in a childish way. There’s nothing wrong with having a little bit of personality and interacting with people on social media. However, when you do it in an unprofessional way, it can start to hurt your image.

Too Much Self Promotion

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of trying to promote themselves all the time. No one gets on a social media site to see constant advertisement from entrepreneurs. There is nothing wrong with giving yourself the occasional shout out, but you want to mix those in with other content. Try to provide value to your subscribers instead of just blasting them with marketing messages all the time.

Not Having Realistic Expectations

If you want to be successful with social media, you need to go into the process with realistic expectations. You will not get rich overnight just because you join a few social media sites and start promoting them. It will take time to be successful with this form of marketing. As long as you go into it with the expectation that it will take some time to develop, you’ll be fine.

This guest post was provided on behalf of Town of Ajax – First For Business, your guide for extensive Ontario business resources to help your business thrive in the Durham Region. http://www.ajaxfirstforbusiness.ca/en/ajax/welcometoajax.asp

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