Social media platforms used to just be places where teens and young adults could go to pass the time, to interact with friends and to play games. Now, as their users have matured, so have their favorite platforms. With more diverse people joining these networks each day, businesses have found themselves reaching the customers and potential customers through robust social media presences.

Having an engaging Facebook page and active Twitter can also provide companies with more visibility not only to the public but also to the search engines, as the giants like Google take social metrics into account more and more. This is why today’s businesses, especially the smaller ones, cannot afford not to engage in social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing and Small Businesses

What other way is there for a small sub-shop in a suburb of Florida to inexpensively place itself in front of an audience that is 800-million people strong? Social media is one of the only ways for small businesses to market themselves on a budget and still successfully reach a large amount of people.

Facebook is even jumping into the game now, providing these businesses with tips for engaging users, garnering likes for their pages, and for overall having a well-rounded Facebook marketing presence.

Social Media Marketing is Important for Branding

Beyond reaching large audiences, small businesses are also flocking to social media platforms for the benefits they can reap by branding themselves online. By creating a strong presence on Facebook and promoting it on Twitter and other platforms, these businesses can built up loyal followings, strengthen their brands, and join conversations about their brands by monitoring what others are saying.

By fully engaging with positive and negative comments being made online about their brands, companies can show that they are listening to what their customers are saying, making improvements, and are generally customer friendly.

The Pitfalls of Social Media Marketing

While the benefits of maximizing the potential social media sites provide for businesses are numerous, there are some pitfalls that can leave businesses feeling hopeless. There is no point in creating social media profiles and pages if you are just going to use them to build up fan and follower bases and then not update them or use them ever again.

Social media marketing requires a great deal of time, effort and attention, and expertise when it comes to engaging followers and fans. This is why many businesses turn to agencies to handle their social media marketing efforts for them, and tend to see high return on investment as a result!

It is often said that people learn more from mistakes than from successes. And that seems to be true, as even the biggest companies with a perfect track record can make some mind-boggling mistakes that are so easy to avoid, which unfortunately can make or break their business.

Almost all entrepreneurs may have a story or two to tell about the mistakes they made and how they would’ve proceeded if they had a second chance.

Here are the 5 biggest business mistakes that are very easy to avoid, yet companies make anyway:

1.    Failing at sales: This often happens because entrepreneurs are simple people, and people have this bad view of selling as if it’s always about snake oil and ripping your clients off. It’s not, and you have to learn that there’s nothing wrong with asking a price for your services. Most of the times, people will actually want to pay for a product or service; otherwise they’ll feel like they owe you something.

2.    Over-committing: Prioritizing some customers over others can have a very negative consequence. And I’m not talking about different clients that ordered premium and bronze packages. I mean only the users of a single product. If you offer better customer support for half of them and forget about the others, guess how will they feel? They’ll not only leave your business, but also make sure they tell everyone about your practices, which can stick to your company’s name for a long time.

3.    Under-pricing your products and services: Almost all the startups do this. They either offer too much of their services for free or at a very low price which doesn’t bring any profit. This may be a viable way of quickly acquiring customers, but unless you are backed by some pretty patient and rich investors, it may not work in the long run. If you suddenly make your products paid or raise the prices, many customers will just leave. So why not decide on a profitable price from the very beginning and focus on providing quality?

4.    Forgetting to follow up: Past clients can be your biggest source of work. Don’t forget them as soon as you sold the first product. Always maintain contact and try to offer them anything else they might be interested in. Schedule an automatic sending of greeting cards on their birthdays or other occasions. This will let them know that you care.

5.    Not knowing how and when to say “No”: Acting on fear or other emotions, you can take pretty bad decisions. It takes a lot to turn down clients, projects and requests and some are easier to do than others. But if you don’t have the time or resources for a new project, you must say “No”. Remember that a customer unsatisfied with the result is always much worse than one you only turned down. Be prepared to be able to refuse client’s wishes, but always do it politely.

If possible, learn from the mistakes of others so you don’t make yours.