An increasingly number of small businesses (SMBs) are starting to use social media to attract new customers.  A recent Small Business Success Index™ report sponsored by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business shows:

- Social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12 percent to 24 percent in the last year

- 75% surveyed have a company page on a social networking site

- 61% use social media for identifying and attracting new customers

- 57% have built a network through a site like LinkedIn

- 45% expect social media to be profitable in the next twelve months

Despite the increase in social media activity among small businesses and the increase of social media education, I still see many mistakes being made by SMBs.  Here are the top 50 mistakes I observe on a daily basis (in no particular order):

1. Lack of planning (Huge one!)
2. Lack of clear and measurable objectives
3. Not learning about social media
4. Lack of knowledge about target audience
5. No commitment
6. Lack of consistency
7. Not realizing that there is a time dedication
8. Worrying too much about negative comments and brand haters
9. Focusing too much about the technology aspect
10. Passing the buck to assistants and interns
11. Spreading themselves too thin by creating profiles everywhere
12. Not completing profiles
13. Uploading pictures of pets or children for avatars
14. Fake friending just to pitch
15. Only talking about oneself, brand or products
16. Hard selling
17. Using the same tactics on every site
18. Responding to every negative comment
19. Not thinking before commenting
20. Not measuring (Another huge one!)
21. Giving up on social media too easily
22. Forgetting it’s about 2-way dialogue
23. Setting profiles and forgetting them
24. Thinking social media is a magic solution to their business problems
25. Jumping on without having a hub (web site or blog)
26. Neglecting to put links back to their web site or blog
27. Not taking a enough time to do research and listen/observe
28. No systems in place
29. Not focusing on core tasks
30. Not separating business and personal social media time
31. Putting eggs all in one basket
32. Continuing with tactics that are clearly not working for them
33. Not taking the time to put a social media schedule in place
34. Not setting time boundaries
35. Not paying attention to customer needs
36. Not providing value
37. Not knowing how to integrate with other marketing/advertising efforts
38. Not knowing how to use all the social media categories together
39. Focusing too much on number of fans/followers/friends
40. Not making enough effort to seek out the right sites for their target audience
41. Neglected (not updating) websites or blogs
42. Using generic or auto responses
43. Spamming people with private messages, DMs or e-mails
44. Using social media as a replacement strategy
45. Not willing to experiment
46. Being close-minded about adding strangers to network
47. Not learning from mistakes
48. Bribing bloggers and others to write about products and services
49. Not spending time finding evangelists and influencers
50. Forgetting that building relationships can be lots of fun

Some of the above mistakes, I already mentioned in a previous blog post:  Are You Making These 10 Social Media Business Blunders?

Have you seen any other social media mistakes that I forgot to mention?  Please list them in the comments below.

Posted Feb 28th, 2010 By Mirna Bard in Social Media With | 20 Comments