Too Much Social Media Can Drive Away Your Customers Your audience won't tire of quality content but the key word is "quality.''
By Brett Relander Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In the last few years, social media has become increasingly vital to any successful marketing campaign. Companies are told repeatedly that they must create social media accounts and engage their customers to stay ahead of the competition. While social media engagement is important to understanding consumer behavior, some brands fall into the trap of actually driving away their customers by trying to keep them too close through social media engagement.
Quality and relevant content will always have their place. The problem occurs when brands attempt to gather as many followers, likes and retweets as possible through the use of content, including material that does not provide true value, as well as questions. In other words, such content is simply promoted for the sake of doing it, similar to checking off a box on a checklist. As a result, it ends up just being more noise in the world of social media that is growing increasingly loud.
Related: How Much Social Media Is Too Much?
In response to such increased noise, many consumers may respond by simply tuning out. Even worse, they may disengage altogether and even unfollow your brand, if they see that you post too frequently without providing anything of real value. This may also occur when your target audience becomes turned off by the domination of your posts on their feeds. Given that the goal of social media engagement is to bring customers closer, this naturally presents a problem.
Brands often make the mistake of assuming that the more often they post, the more engagement and followers they will receive. This is not necessarily the case. Each social media platform is different. The preferences among users regarding how frequently they wish to be contacted can vary among platforms.
Related: Are You Trying Too Hard on Social Media? This Website Will Let You Know.
Before you begin to post to any social media platform, it is important to understand the expectations of that platform's users. For instance, Twitter users are least likely to be turned off by frequent posts. In fact, as a general rule, not only do Twitter users not mind seeing multiple posts throughout the day, they actually expect it.
Facebook functions differently. While it is important to always strive for your brand to remain visible and relevant, you want to avoid posting too frequently. As a general rule, one to two posts per day is sufficient for Facebook, according to FastCompany.
While it can be difficult, achieving a balance between annoying your customers and keeping them informed is vital to your brand's success. Regardless of how frequently you post to social media, it is important to ensure that what you post is of value. The key is to avoid going overboard.
If you have noticed that your engagement has not been as strong lately as you would like, or worse, that you are even losing followers, the problem could be due to a little too much of a good thing.
Related: 4 Quick Tips for Using Social Media for Customer Service
