You wouldn’t serve a half baked dish to your guests. It might taste bad, or even make them sick. But many small businesses regularly serve half-baked social media to their clients or audience. It’s not on purpose. Nobody is setting out to serve up salmonella-esque social. People just don’t know.

Here are 9 (or 10) Indications that a Company’s Social Media Strategy Is Not Fully Cooked:

1. Social media accounts that lay dormant, with no posts since they were initially set up.
2. Accounts that re-post or share and never post original content.
3. Accounts with no images and copy-only posts.
4. Accounts with no copy and image only posts.
5. Social media that ignores customer engagement.
6. Generic posts that have no connection to the location or target audience.
7. Ill-timed posts;
– either posts at times of the day that don’t fit the audience
– posts that don’t take current events account (such as posts about frivolity during a crisis news event)
– posts that don’t take the environment into account (such as posts promoting local beach fun during a snow storm)
8. Social media accounts that never say anything personal about the business
9. Accounts that direct prospects to websites without capturing emails for further outreach

Perhaps one of the most common problems isn’t in the list above because it’s just so big it deserves its own paragraph. Strategy. There actually has to be a strategy. It’s hard to believe, like bang my head on a wall hard to believe, but many companies don’t actually have a social media strategy at all. (Maybe I’ll blog soon about how many companies don’t have a marketing strategy at all…hmmm…). Social media won’t manage itself or just blossom on its own. Sadly, neither do the plants in my house. A lame or limping social media channel may be better off non-existent. It looks bad when a social media account is dormant and it is criminal to let customers go unacknowledged when they reach out via social channels.

Business owners get busy doing their “real jobs.” I hear it all the time. That’s why the strategy matters. Plan before you invite the guests to dinner. Will you have enough time to put the roast in the oven and get it cooked before everyone is seated? That kind of thing matters. Thankfully, while being poisoned at someone’s dinner table is hard to forget, social media mishaps may be easily repaired. Social media strategies can be developed and employed at any time. There is hope and a solution.