Are you a sinner?
We spend a lot of time on social, promoting our business, promoting our clients businesses and of course, just for fun. We’re members of countless small business Facebook pages, and sometimes what we see is greatness… we often see small business owners that are not necessarily marketing gurus but still putting out content that’s fresh, on-brand and relevant. Awesome work! But... we also see things that cause us to pause, shake our heads and wonder ‘why’, why did that person think that was the best way to represent their business? Did they have a brain aneurism, were they drunk at the time of posting, or did they build a time machine and travel back to 2005 and schedule that post? What ever they were thinking, they need some help. Now this blog isn’t about how to post great content. Think of this blog as a checklist… if you’re guilty of doing any of these social media marketing sins, you might want to stop and think about ditching the plan (or lack there of) and starting again. #sorrynotsorry
Sin #1 - The ridiculously happy generic person dancing videos
We’ve all seen them, those videos with the good-looking ‘office’ person performing a cringeworthy dance in slow motion paired with a basic graphic that says something like “Martin just got his tax done by XYZ Tax Agent… be like Martin”..
Please, you’re not fooling anyone Martin. Get the hell off my news feed! These videos come from stock footage libraries and everyone knows it. It’s cynical, it’s lazy, and it does nothing to showcase your point of difference.
Sin #2 - The transparent image faux pa
As graphic designers this might seem a little nerdy but it’s worth examining. Now you don’t need to be a graphic designer to know that a ‘PNG’ image is an image with a transparent background. If you download one and place it ontop of your main image it needs to be transparent. If it isn’t, it just looks s**t.
These examples are typical… and so avoidable! It's important to remember that your average potential customer is in a decision making phase. Don’t give them a reason to question your professionalism because of a hashed together social media post.
Sin #3 - Please, not that guy!
This guy, you’ve seen him, we know you have. You’ve got to give it to him though, this dude has had a stella career. Doctor, Dentist, Mortgage Broker, Bank Manager… professional Grandad… the list goes on. He’s been dubbed ‘Hide-The-Pain-Harold’. Yeh, you see it now don't you.
Nothing says ‘I just can’t be bothered’ better than using a stock image with this guy (and his extended family on Shutterstock).
Let’s wrap this up!
There are more social media sins but we’re all busy. We manage a ton of social media accounts that are killing it right now and generating quality leads. We live by one rule and that's ‘don’t post crap’. Unless it’s a quality post then you’re better off not posting it at all.
To all the Perth small business owners out there smashing it - you have our total respect. It’s not easy running a business and producing quality content. Keep it up.
For all those sinners... it's time to repent ;-)