ASHI and MEDIC First Aid Blog

We all spend a lot of time on social media and that’s doubly true if you’re a small business owner. Engaging current and potential customers on the big platforms is an inexpensive marketing strategy that anyone can implement. But are there social media mistakes you should avoid?

As Forbes puts it, “[M]arketing your small business on social media takes a particular kind of mindset. It’s not advertising, after all – you have to do more than just broadcast messages at people.”

In their article, “10 Classic Small Business Social Media Mistakes,” Forbes suggests steering clear of pitfalls like these that we’ve all seen in our social media feeds:

You’re using a personal account as a business account. Only 37% of small businesses said they use designated business social media accounts to reach their audiences.  It makes your business look unprofessional, [and] also inhibits your own activity on social media ... It’s a good idea to be careful what you share – especially for business accounts.

You aren’t responding to customer inquiries on social media.  Your customers expect you to be responding to them on social media. And when you don’t… it creates a bad impression.

You’re trying to be on every social media site. You’re not putting in enough effort on any of the platforms, so you’re getting watered-down results. Figure out which 2-3 platforms are generating the most results for you, and focus on those.

You’re trying the hard sell. Try to teach, rather than sell on social. Keep the promotional stuff to 20% or less of what you post. The goal here is to be entertaining and useful. Because if you’re not being engaging… your audience has no reason to engage.

For our first responders: As high-visibility members of our communities, EMS and fire organizations and personnel can easily have big audiences on social media. Be sure your team is following best practices with the Social Media and EMS course from 24-7:

While EMS organizations can use social media to their advantage as a recruiting tool or a way to disseminate valuable life-saving information to the community, there can be downsides to its use by individual providers. This course explains how the improper use of social media can negatively affect EMS providers and organizations, outlines social media best practices for EMS professionals, and reviews guidelines for assessing or creating a fair and effective social media policy.

To browse our 24-7 catalog of courses, click the button below. And be sure to follow ASHI and MEDIC First Aid on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

See you all online!