Making mistakes isn’t necessarily a bad thing. First off, you always learn more from a ‘not-so-great’ moment. In fact, chances are that if you’ve ever made a mistake you’re highly unlikely to repeat it. Second, you don’t have to make your own mistakes to learn from what you should or shouldn’t do. You can learn from other peoples’ mistakes too. Looking at mishaps that others have made can teach you what pitfalsl to avoid and how to circumvent similar situations.

Social media has put a spotlight on mistakes and makes them  available for the entire world to see. When those trip-ups come from recognizable companies and big brands they can become glaring examples that the rest of us need to learn from. Here’s a run down on social media mishaps that your company should refrain from making:

1. Stale Content

The Internet is a gigantic growing web of information and if you’re not regularly contributing to it then you’re missing out on opportunities to connect with interested people. It’s important to post fresh and original content on a regular basis. Without it, your fans and followers may wonder where you’ve disappeared to and venture off to graze in greener pastures. The trick with content is to understand how much or how little you should post. Take the time to learn about what your audience wants and then get ready to update, share and engage.

2. Combing Business And Personal Accounts

A major no-no is meshing professional and personal social media accounts with one another. Keep the highlights of your Las Vegas weekend between you and your friends, not you and your clients. If you’re considering social media to promote your business brand make sure to create separate profiles on each platform.

3. Little To No Monitoring

Awhile back some hackers cracked into Amazon.com and caused all books written by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) authors to disappear. Needless to say, many people were infuriated and they took to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to voice their frustration and upset. This included creating a hashtag on Twitter that was used to funnel the disgust directed toward Amazon. Because Amazon hadn’t reacted quickly enough people believed that they deliberately removed GLBT materials from their site. Lesson learned – make sure to monitor what’s being said about your brand and company routinely.

4. Cloning Strategies

Each social media site has a unique following. Getting to know and understand who the audience is and what they like is what will help you shape your social media strategy. A cookie cutter approach is not the way to go. What works on Digg probably won’t work on StumbleUpon and what works on Reddit won’t necessarily work on Mixx. Tailor your strategy to each platform before you implement.

5. Inexperienced Representatives

One of the more recent social media firestorms occurred between Nestle and Greenpeace in early 2010 on their Facebook Pages. Supporters of Greenpeace staged a protest against Nestle for using palm oil from deforested areas in Indonesia. Unfortunately, Nestle’s social media team demonstrated a lack of tact, maturity and professionalism by posting glib and sarcastic remarks. The defensive exchange spun out of control. Whomever you choose to serve as the social media mouthpiece for your company should be a trained professional that recognizes one of the golden rules – you don’t insult your customers.

6. Illegitimate Friending

In September 2009, restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday’s launched its ‘Woody’ social media marketing campaign. They used a supposed out-of-work actor who claimed that he was the biggest T.G.I. Friday fan and that if he could get 500,00 people to fan his Facebook Page then T.G.I. Friday would give away a free burger to each person who fanned him. What people didn’t know was that Woody wasn’t a real person and that the challenge wasn’t an actual cause. People felt betrayed and outraged when they learned the truth. On this same note, don’t run out and attempt to acquire fans in mass. It appears spammy and fake. Take time to get to know your followers and cultivate relationships with them that will be long lasting.

Do you have any other corporate social media mistakes or stories that you’d like to share? Post below. We’d love to hear from you.

We’re only human and that makes us all less than perfect. Couple that fact with social media and there’s the potential to make a few errors along the way. Mistakes are simply a process to show us how to do things better. Learning what works and what doesn’t is how success and failure are measured. Rather than repeating some of the more common social media mistakes that people tend to make, it’s easier to know what they are ahead of time so that you can avoid making them yourself.

1. Missing a Blog

You absolutely need a blog if you’re going to engage in social media. Without one, you won’t have much to promote other than your website. Unless you’re planning on updating its content and design on a daily basis, a blog is the next best thing.

2. Confusing Personal & Professional

If you’re launching a social media campaign or even a social media presence for your business, product or service, it’s important to keep your engagement as such. You shouldn’t tweet or post questionable or offensive material that friends might find amusing. Clients or customers may find it in poor taste and it can end up portraying you and your brand in an unfavorable light.

3. Promoting Selfishly

True, the main reason that you’re involved with social media it to create awareness about your brand, but it’s not the only reason. Shamelessly selling your own services isn’t what brings people together in social media. Distribute and share information from different outlets by spreading on to others. Be a resource and not a salesman. It will take you far.

4. Mass Fans & Followers

The best things in life are free and they’re earned. Social media takes time to build fans, followers and connections. Take it one day at a time. Build a relationship with each person. Let people get to know you and reciprocate the favor by getting to know them too. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to social media following.

5. Disappearing From the Scene

If you’re going to embark on a social media adventure, be prepared to stick around  through the thick and thin. Too often, people launch their social media efforts full of ambition, but suddenly go missing in action. Tweets stop, blog posts cease and information in general comes to a crashing halt. Be committed and consistent. Social media means daily interaction with your peeps.

6. Not Having a Plan

When you decide to build something – a car, house, prototype, whatever – you need a blueprint. The same thing is true for social media. You need a roadmap to guide you on your journey. Having a plan doesn’t mean that it’s set in stone. Create a working document that is flexible enough to bend and move with your social media goals and objectives. Revisit it often and make changes and adjustments as necessary.

7. Connecting Your Profiles

Chances are that you’ll have a social media presence on more than one platform. Make sure to connect your profiles together and promote them on your other platforms. Show off a LinkedIn badge on your Facebook page. Put your Facebook URL on your Twitter background. There are plenty of social media tools available that can help you integrate your profiles with one another.

What are some of the other social media mistakes that you’ve made or seen other make? Share them with us below.

Starting up a blog is pretty simple, but maintaining and cultivating a following for it can be a bit more challenging. If you’ve got the ambition to begin a blog, invest some time and thought into making it a solid one and cover all your bases. Whether you’re launching your first company blog, beginning one for a client or setting up a personal blog spot for yourself, avoiding some of these common mistakes will give your blog a fighting chance in a sea of many.

1. Not being consistent. You don’t have to post multiple times in a day. Leave that to the news sites. You should try to post on a regular basis. Without fresh content, your readers will move on to greener blog pastures. Give your fans something to read and try to do it weekly.

2. Forgetting your subscribe button. Syndication feeds allow your subscribers to keep track of your blog’s new posts and updates. Make it easy for your readers and passers-by to follow your blog with a simple click. Blogs that aren’t prominently displaying an RSS button are missing out on potential fans.

3. No promotional efforts. Your blog is an extension of you, and perhaps, even your business. Market and promote it just like you would for any other product or service. Integrate your blog into your social media profiles. Sync your posts with social media status updates to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Bookmark some of your favorite blog posts (don’t bookmark all of them or it will come across as being to self-serving and spammy).

4. Lacking persistence. The world’s top bloggers didn’t find themselves there overnight. It’s taken them years to build a following, establish a blog persona and produce content that their blog audience relates to and identifies with. Don’t compare your blog to others. Focus on bringing new and timely information to your readers that they’ll appreciate and want.

5. Not having good headlines. The headline of your blog post is what people will see and read first before anything else. You don’t need to make it clever or catchy. Be succinct and summarize exactly what you’ve written. Less is more when it comes to blog headlines. Try to aim for less than 10 words.

Writing a blog requires time, dedication and patience. Blogs are a great way to interact with others and build wonderful social connections. This is especially true when you create a well-written post that resonates with others. It’s a rewarding feeling to receive feedback on how your post has been received, as well as how it’s perceived. Stick with your blog and don’t give up.

What are some other blog mistakes that should be avoided? Please share and add below.

To most people branding conjures up images of logos and corporate colors, but it’s actually much more than that. By business definition, branding is simply the creation of an identifiable entity that makes a promise of value. Let’s face it, today’s marketplace is a crowded place and being able to distinguish and stand out is no easy feat. Understanding what the right and wrong way to carry out brand management will make a big difference in the success of your business and  its image.

1. Logo Misconceptions

Too often, businesses focus solely on the graphic design and creative elements of a logo instead of positioning, buyer psychology and alignment with company objectives. Start thinking about your logo analytically and establish a plan on how to connect customer insights with your brand promise.

2. Being Everything to Everyone

It is impossible to appeal to every individual. Instead, focus on a niche market that you can tailor your brand to. Gaining the trust of a targeted audience will help strengthen your brand appeal and reputation.

3. Trying to Be Different

Differentiating your brand just for the sake of being different isn’t going to increase sales. Don’t use gimmicks to make the brand stand out, promote actual benefits for your customers that the competition can’t offer.

4. Lack of Commitment

Some companies place brand management in the hands of a marketing department so that they can concentrate on other operational aspects. Branding is an integral part of all departments within a company and preserving brand uniformity and integrity prevents it from becoming diluted.

5. Missing a Marketing Plan

Failure to plan is planning to fail. Traditional marketing isn’t delivering results like it used to. The game has changed and if you want to promote your brand you need to do it online. Slapping a profile up on Facebook and calling it good isn’t marketing. Consider hiring a professional who is adept at providing social media marketing services.

6. Customer Disconnect

Not knowing who your brand’s customers are can lead to disaster. Engage in customer dialogue, learn their wants, uncover their needs and continually evolve to meet the changing demands of the market place and become a better company overall.

7. Unconscious Neglect

Ultimately, businesses want their brands to succeed, but they aren’t necessarily doing much to strengthen or enhance them. Awareness of brand perception is critical to its longevity. Sometimes this requires coordinating with a third-party market research firm to investigate what consumers really think. Use the feedback to refocus your brand direction.

8. Too Much Change Too Often

Brands should evolve, not change. Businesses that are continually shifting their position may end up causing more harm than they realize. Spending the time to conduct solid research will help get things right the first time.

9. Not Tracking the Brand

If someone reaches out to your business for assistance, whether it’s through email or phone call, finding out how they learned about the brand and why they’ve contacted you will help drive future brand marketing efforts.Perhaps you have a TV commercials that’s driving customers your way. That’s important to know so that you can expand and continue reproducing good results.

10. Forgetting to Research

This really ties in to a majority of the branding mistakes that have been listed above. Research the competition, your customer, your market place and your business model carefully. Knowing what your brand is up against and how to properly position it can save you from headache and frustration down the road. Knowledge is power and the more that you understand about your market, the easier it will be be to succeed when you enter it.

When it comes right down to it, logos are used to identify. They represent products, businesses, services and so much more, but ultimately they are used to create, describe and signify what something is all about. Logos are like poetry. Where poets use select words in a small sentence to convey large meaning, logos share volumes of information about what they represent. From quirky to conservative and edgy to punchy, developing a logo takes some consideration and planning. So here’s a few tips to make your logo successful and few more to avoid using.

Logo Don’ts

1. Font only logos. Stay away from a font-only logo or one that uses to many fonts. Text just isn’t going to leave a lasting impression. It’s easily forgettable and it doesn’t make a visual impact that people can connect with.

2. Clipart. Keep your artwork original. Have images designed to fulfill the scope of your branding project. Using a pre-made art doesn’t look cohesive and comes across unfinished. Good design should connect to the purpose of your logo and its overall intent.

3. Scale. Logos should be built to with the ability to adjust in size without losing quality in the design. This also means don’t use rasterized images for your logos. Rasterized images can provide inconsistencies in reproduction and appear pixelated.

4. Trendy. A logo should have longevity and be around for awhile. Using trends means you’re not making your logo timeless. Without a unique approach to logo development it can appear like a copy-cat or outdated within a small amount of time.

5. Selfish Design. Build a logo for your customer, not for the designer’s ego or your own. Your logo needs to reach and appeal to your target audience and anxious graphic artists that see your logo as an opportunity to stamp with their own personalities aren’t going to produce what you need.

A good approach to logo design is working with a professional who takes the time to consult with you and learn about your needs, wants and goals. Getting a sense of who will be purchasing, subscribing or using the offer behind the logo will make a big difference in the logo’s design and final outcome. A solid logo should follow a few basic principles.

Logo Do’s

1. Clear. Too much detail can be overkill for a logo. Cramming in too many elements can cause it to appear cluttered and distracting. Simple design makes a logo recognizable and customers will remember it.

2. Versatility. Think about how the logo will be used and where it will be used. Your logo should look and work well in color and as a black in white image. It should also be flexible enough to use on the Internet or on an outdoor board. The color palette should be simple. Too many colors can potentially cost quite a bit down the road for promotional items and printed pieces.

3. Image. A good logo doesn’t have to describe what a company does or is. Consider the star-emblem that Macy’s uses – it doesn’t sell stars, or the Mercedes Benz icon – they sell cars, but you don’t see a miniature-auto for a logo.

4. Format. Using vector images will give your logo greater flexibility and preserve its basic structure. This is important when it comes to sizing for different media products, marketing outlets and any other situation that features your logo.

5. Feedback. Definitely keep communication transparent with your designer. It will help keep your logo project on the right path. Be cautious when sharing your logo designs with others. It’s ok to get an opinion from someone, but involving parents, friends, colleagues and partners may hinder the design progress of the logo and derail the logo from meeting it’s objectives.

Hopefully these basic tips will get your logo design moving in the right direction. There’s a million great resources available online for additional logo design tips and tricks. Take a look around and you’re bound to find some excellent information.