Worst Social Media Practices (and how to avoid them)

What is the worst social media practice, you might ask? Because I’m a social media manager, I get to see a lot of websites and social media accounts. There are a few that stand out for all the wrong reasons. Here are just a few. The good news is that most of them are easy fixes. Some may require that you hire a developer to fix your website, but they will help your business!

No e-commerce is one of the worst social media practices

Recently, I saw a social media account with a website in the profile. The website had buttons for e-commerce, but none of them worked. So there was no way to buy anything online. There’s still a pandemic (and even if there wasn’t a pandemic, people want to go online and have things delivered if possible), and people are still busy and tired.

Fix: If you can set up a way for people to buy from you, please make it easy. Don’t make potential customers memorize a secret password, call you, and make an appointment during the one hour a week you’re actually open. (Unless you’re a practical joker, and don’t have any intention of ever selling anything! In that case, two thumbs up!)

Worst Social Media Practices (and how to avoid them). Image by Daniel Reche from Pixabay

No profile picture

When you have no profile picture, it looks like no one is home. This is one of the worst social media practices there is. Now that everyone has a camera in their pocket, it’s more critical than ever to have a decent photo. See what Social Champ says in their article The Importance of Social Media Images. “In one study, they discovered that content paired with an image attracted 94% more views on average than content without visuals.”

Fix: This is an easy one to fix. If you don’t have a profile picture please take one. Even a picture of your cat or your puppy is better than nothing. Seriously, though. Get a picture. Even if it’s a crummy picture, it’s better than having nothing. By the way, I’ve talked about the importance of improvising before. You might like How to MacGyver Your Social Media.

Posting sporadically

People may go to your website, where you say you have every platform under the sun. But when you go to any of those platforms, your last post was in 2018. Has this happened to your brand?

Fix: Why not schedule out at least a few posts, but spread them out a bit? Put out one post per month, at the very least, so we know the account is still alive? Please.

Magical thinking is — you guessed it! — one of the worst social media practices

Some people think that social media is magic. But the truth is that it’s a lot of hard work! I’ve written about Magical Thinking before. You might like Magical Thinking and Social Media.

Fix: Sometimes one person tells two people tells four people, and so on. But usually that doesn’t happen. Be realistic about what social media can do and you’ll be happier.

Ugly pictures

By ugly, what I mean is that sometimes the pictures are spammy with big, red SALE splotches all over them, or out of focus, or you can’t even tell what something is.

Fix: It’s 2022, and images are more important than ever. Don’t post an image of a flyer that looks like it’s from 1998, unless your shop is all about the 90s.

Immediately spamming with private messages

This happens on Twitter, and not so much on other platforms, although recently I had someone try to sell me something on Facebook in a private message.

Fix: Don’t do this until you have a relationship with someone. Even then, tread carefully. You risk being blocked or reported, plus losing that person as a follower.