The social media space is crowded these days. According to MSNBC, Facebook has over 500 million users today, and if it were a country would be the third-largest in the world. Twitter reports that it signed on over 100 million users in 2010. Those numbers make marketing online both an enormous opportunity and a significant challenge. It is imperative that when you create a brand, the focus is on creating a strong presence. In today’s social media arenas, the goal must be getting noticed rather than being lost in the crowd.

I have previously written about the importance of listening and having an authentic conversation with your audience. I have covered messaging and strategy, and the importance of location. All of this can create a wonderfully positive ripple effect. But the ripple effect can turn negative and be devastating to a brand. This post focuses on the most common mistakes and how to put in processes to avoid significant missteps.

1 - Measuring results

One of the most common and significant mistakes companies make today with their social media marketing is forgetting that this is about building and increasing one’s customer base. A company must monitor and measure success both online and offline to understand the impact of any social media marketing campaign. Connecting online is only one step. A company must ensure that the effort being put into those connections are capitalized and result in something meaningful.

2 - Responding quickly to concerns

Listening to customers is as important during the calm as it is during a crisis. Many companies are successfully using social media as a kind of focus group. This can be a powerful way to create a strong connection that can turn into a strong customer relationship. Equally important, however, is responding to concerns. Responding quickly can help a company avoid a negative ripple about a product or their brand.

3 - Monitoring conversion rates

Taking connections to the next level means that a company must convert those contacts into something actionable. Often companies spend time and money to reach customers online but with no measurable goal in mind. The first step is to define the actionable goal. Once done, a company can monitor conversion rates. The higher the conversion rate, the more successful the campaign. When conversion rates are low, it likely means that the message fell flat, did not translate into a call to action or was targeted incorrectly. Understanding who you are connecting to and how well you are converting those connections can define the success or failure of your campaign. Low conversion rates require that a company evaluates what it is selling, how it is presenting its products, and who is finding its products.

4 - Defined organizational management

Avoiding missteps (like failing to act quickly) means that a company must define an organizational structure to support accomplishing its goals. This means understanding that social media marketing will span departments, and involve many different groups. It also means that roles need to be defined. Defining roles and responsibilities up front will allow a company to be more nimble in any crisis. Out side support is also available, however must involve company insiders to ensure an authentic voice.

More practical mistakes include:

• Stale content - make sure to refresh content on a regular and frequent basis.
• Spamming - don’t send everything out to everyone all the time or you will become SPAM and lose impact.
• Being pushy - treat customers online as you would in person.
• Inexperienced Reps - you need well written, tactful and knowledgable reps to respond.
• “Ghost” friending - only use real people, who can speak honestly and openly to your market. Companies have created firestorms by creating characters to friend would be customers only to have it backfire.
• Deleting negative feedback - many companies fear negative comments, however deleting posts often have a greater negative impact because connections can perceive this as censorship.
• Overreacting to mistakes - Don’t overreact. Mistakes happen and will usually blow over. Overreacting and taking your posts down, for example, can draw negative attention. 
• Relax - this too shall pass.

So what does one do if the worst happens?

Mitigation starts with discovery. Listen and learn. Understand the sphere of influence of those making the comments. Create a plan of attack. Unfortunately, the larger the organization, the more time it can take to create a plan. Be prepared so you can respond quickly. While you may not be able to foresee the issue, you can prepare first response steps. The longer it takes to respond, the more out of touch you will appear. Let them know you are on it and will reply. And make sure to respond in your brand’s voice but appropriate for the community with whom you are communicating.

Remember don’t overreact. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has admittedly made mistakes. Facebook’s response to concerns over privacy changes was slow. And they took heat for it. However, in the end, Zuckerberg said they were listening to feedback and trying “to distill it down to the key things they needed to improve.” Had they responded more quickly, they might have avoided a significant amount of criticism.

Next time, I will write about “Net Geners” - those that have grown up with the technology, how they differ, and why they are important to factor in.

You can follow this on my blog, or the EQi Services facebook page or connect via twitter @lesliehughesny.