3 Annoying Social-Media Mistakes Businesses Need to Avoid

Are your social-media marketing habits attracting people to your brand or scaring them off? If you litter your Twitter feed, Facebook page and Pinterest boards with blatantly self-centered, hard sales posts -- or even insensitive, potentially offensive posts -- you could be guilty of sending your followers packing, right along with their spending cash.
Here's a short list of notorious social-media mistakes business owners should remember to avoid and why:
1. Only talking about your products and services.
By now, this one should be a no-brainer. Don't be that guy at the party who only talks about himself. Posting status updates, tweets and pins that narcissistically revolve around your brand only is tantamount to social-media suicide. You'll quickly come off as too corporate, self-serving

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228574#ixzz2gMubBA5I

BUSINESS NETWORKING

The underestimated canon in the business world

Advertisement is a very essential tool in business. Large corporations invest hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising their goods and services annually. According to Forbes.com, in 2011, Apple’s advertisement budget was an approximated one billion dollars. They are not alone. Microsoft spent over 1.6 billion dollars in advertisement of its products and services in 2012.  An article on www.Investopidia.com listed 7 companies with big advertisement budget and you will be shocked to know that neither Apple nor Microsoft was listed. These companies are:

·         Procter & Gamble (P&G): a leading consumer product company that provides consumer products in segments like beauty and grooming, health and wellbeing, household care, snacks  and many more products. Estimated spend on advertisement was $2.95 billion in 2011

·         L'Oréal: specializes in beauty products from makeup and skin care to tanning, and a wide range of hair products including styling & coloring for men and women. Estimated spend on advertisement for 2011 was $1.3 billion

·         General Motors:  one of the largest automobile manufacturers  spent an estimated $1.78 billion on advertisement. Highest spend on advert in the automobile industry for the year 2011

·         Chrysler:  also an American automobile manufacturer. Spent an estimated $1.19 billion on advertisement in 2011

·         Verizon: an innovative wireless communications company that provides superior broadband, video and other wireless and wireline services to customers, businesses, governments and wholesale customers across the globe. Verizon operates America’s largest 4G wireless network. Estimated spend on advertisement was $1.64 billion in 2011

·         Time Warner: global leader in media and entertainment with businesses in television network, film & TV entertainment and publishing, uses its industry-leading operating scale and brands to create package and deliver high quality content worldwide through multiple distribution outlets. Estimated spend on advertisement was $1.28 billion

·         Pfizer:  world’s largest pharmaceutical company by revenue. Develops and produces medicine, vaccines for a wide range of medical conditions. Estimated spend on advertisement in the year 2011 was $1.2 billion.

Investment of these companies on advertisement alone is enough to start up over a million SME in many countries. This goes to show that advertisement is a key to the sustenance of corporations and businesses.

Some years back, in an episode of “The Apprentice” (UK version) which has Lord Alan Sugar as the potential investor in the works and ideas of contestants –majorly the winner of the show, Lord Sugar made it clear to one of the contestants who was proposing advertising his products via the mass media that the budget of most of his potential competitors on advertisement alone surpasses by a mile the amount of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds(250,000) he was going to invest on the business of the contestant. What does this imply for owners of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)? If as a small scale enterprise, you are trying to compete with the Big guns in the industry, you have a practically little chance of acquiring even 0.5 percent of the market share from larger corporations in respective industry or sector regardless of the quality of your products because your competitors have resources to cover more grounds in far less time as your own organization.

As an entrepreneur in Nigeria, it worse. Government policies hardly support upcoming businesses, financial institution are less likely to fund any business (regardless of its potential) that does not have a form of financial security. Mind you, the price of advertisement is relatively as high in Nigeria as it is in many other countries in the world. So, how do we solve this problem? Are potential entrepreneurs to ignore their visions, missions and ideas? Do they like many others seek to earn “white-collar” jobs and resort to a routine job of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.? Alternatively, do they just get a trade that enables them to feed from “hand to mouth” without much prospect of growth?

How have existing businesses in the world overcome this problems and grown from small-scale enterprises (SMEs) into major players in their respective fields? Brian Chesky (internet developer and founder of AirBNB) said “build something hundred people love not something a million people kind of like”. Which means even if the market base is initially as small as 100 customers who really love the product offered, it is easy for the market base to grow beyond 100 million customer with time with the power of business networking. Aside the famous story of Mark Zuckerberg- the founder of Facebook, below is a list of some entrepreneurs that started small and with the aid of  business networking, their businesses grew:

·         Tracy DiNunzio: founder of online marketing outfit Tradesy

      

·         Bill Gates: founder of IT giant Microsoft

      

·         Luck Lang and Darren Westlake: founders of Crowdcube

·         Steve Jobs: founder of  computer giant Apple makers of the Macbook and Iphone 

     

Business Networking: One of the most under-utilized and undoubtedly one of the most effective (in terms of cost and time) business tools in the world. Many businesses grow via referrals, online, business to business (B2B) and face-to-face type business networking. This form of investment makes SMEs able to get there goods and services out to a large group of customer base at a lesser cost, thereby enabling and encouraging growth of these business and sustainability in the long run. Business networking also allows for:

·         Customer engagement: - this form of product marketing is closer to the grassroots (the end users), thus making it is easier to get honest customer opinion of particular good or service provided. This helps in making adjustment where need be. It also aids in enhancing the strengths of the company and maximizing customer satisfaction. Early customers also enhance growth of business.

·         Credibility enhancement: - business rely on the credibility of their brand in the know that one “good word” may spur potential customer to patronize the product and a good business person would eliminate any factor of jeopardy to his/her business.

·         Strategic investors and financing partners: - Big corporations and business minded wealthy individuals are always on the lookout to invest in sustainable SMEs. With business networking, it takes a shorter period for big corporations to get at least an insight into the business and possibly seek to engage such business in one way or another.

·         Mentorship and advice: - Offers of advice on market insight and industry structures from professionals in relative sectors are quite common benefits SMEs that engage in Business Networking get.

·         Go-to-market partners: - Business networking encourages the chances of SMEs getting distributors, retailers/resellers, logistics and easier access to outlets. This in turn builds a wider chain of businesses and creates a larger web of entrepreneurial network.

·         Operating capability enhancement: -

It is very important for an entrepreneur to maximize the use of his/her business network:  A readily available weapon that might be the key to the growth of your business. No lead is too small, exploit all at your disposal. Attend business event, trade exhibitions, conferences and other socio-economic events, which many have in attendance like minds (entrepreneurs), professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs who may have similar vision, challenges and experiences in relevant sectors.