Having an inactive social media account sends the message to your customers that you are either no longer in business or just don't care about your online reputation.
Typically, problems occur when managers of a company place their social media marketing responsibilities in the hands of their own employees, who usually have little or no experience in this type of work. Sometimes, employees even will take it upon themselves to create accounts without asking, operating without management's permission or knowledge. This can hurt reputation, as there is no consistency in the message or proof reading from the eyes of those in charge.
This is further compounded when companies allow in-house employees to create and keep the pass codes to social media accounts. If that employee quits, is let go, or walks off the job, he/she take the social media accounts with them.
When socially active customers search your business on social media sides and come upon a page that is inactive or littered with unhappy posts from customers, they get the wrong impression of your business (and it's usually not a positive one).
Usually, this is a turn-off for customers, as many use internet reviews they find on social media sites as an aid in their decision-making process. These customers start searching other companies immediately, meaning you have already lost the opportunity to capture them. The old adage, "you only have one opportunity to make a first impression" rings especially true today thanks to instant exposure and easy access of information in the social media world.
An easy way to avoid all these pitfalls is by hiring a professional third party to control your social media accounts, passwords and security settings, establishing a stronger and more secured, positive online reputation.
Basically the same rule of thumb applies when creating new accounts for your business, as companies need to be careful not to duplicate pages. More than one page associated to your specific business, store, brand, or product confuses and frustrates customers, making them jump through unnecessary hoops to access the information you want to provide. Most companies with the problem of duplicate pages have many other of the social media issues outlined above, making it a sure sign that a company is disinterested in this form of marketing; this isolates their business and keeps them detached from the modern world that exists in large numbers over the internet on a daily basis.
It truly is critical for companies to have senior management or a contracted third party keeping a close eye on your social sites so you don't get into this situation. The amount of work that is necessary to do this frequently surprises businesses, as year-round consistency is extremely difficult to achieve in addition to other responsibilities of employees. A third party allows a company to allocate all this work to an individual at an affordable price, with a contracted guarantee that information will be sent out and posted on all platforms with uniform consistency, creativity, and attention to detail. This protects the company's image, brand, and reputation while also further securing the pages themselves from tampering, spamming, or anything else that can send the wrong idea to customers.
