In our previous blog, we discussed five techniques to incorporate into your social media marketing strategy when you are creating visuals. We promoted these so you can avoid big mistakes that many brands (even major ones) often make. With that in mind, you might be asking about the biggest foul-ups you should avoid. That’s why we created this list.
These are the biggest branding blunders you can make on social media. As you read, you may find yourself itching to log into Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest and fix these mistakes immediately. Don’t panic, however. Even the biggest brands make mistakes– that’s the beauty of social media marketing, there’s always room for improvement.
1. Controversial imagery. A few years ago, major clothing retailer Gap made a major faux-pas by creating an ad that was perceived as racist. They took down the ad and withdrew it from all their channels, but the damage was done. Dove, Peta, Pepsi, and Sony have all made similar huge mistakes by not thinking their imagery all the way through. The results ended up offending a group of people and backfiring on their brand considerably. Do yourself a favor and look at your marketing from ALL angles.You can cause a firestorm if you’re smart.
2. Poor quality imagery. You would be surprised at how many brands don’t see a problem incorporating blurry, pixelated or poor quality imagery– especially when designing a cover image for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or another platform. Make sure your images are at least 300 dpi and used in its more optimal form. Of course, there are other mistakes that could be made. Typos in superimposed texts, content that doesn’t match your branding, off-subject content, and more.
3. Cut off imagery. You spent hours designing that cover image. You uploaded it and it looks great. So why is your VP of Sales calling you saying it looks all wonky on her iPhone? When you’re designing your imagery, you need to accommodate for all screens and platform specifications. While it is possible, it can be quite challenging without a team of designers helping you. Even more frustrating, they have changed these dimensions before and continue to do so, so your team must be ready to adapt their catalog of files at a moment’s notice.
Take a moment and do a quick Google search for marketing mistakes. You will find countless examples of big brands that have made these errors and in some cases, continue to do so. Make sure you get the right kind of publicity and market appropriately.
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