E-commerce and RetailEmail Marketing & AutomationSocial Media & Influencer Marketing

5 Ways Careless Social Media Can Hurt Your eCommerce Business

Social media is a powerful medium for e-commerce brands to reach new customers. Many businesses have entire teams of people dedicated to social media marketing. However, there is a dark side to social media marketing.

If you are going to be active on social media, you need to be very careful. A single small mistake can ruin your company’s image. Here are some major mistakes e-commerce companies need to look out for.

Humor that Doesn’t Support Your Brand

Many brands try too hard to be funny on social media. Humor isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You want to be able to connect with people on a personal level. This is particularly important for e-commerce companies because social media is the only way for your customers to get to know you.

However, it isn’t appropriate for all brands. E-commerce companies that sell products to more conservative customers may need to use less humor. For example, Lifeway, an online Christian store, can’t make the same kinds of jokes as eBay retailers that sell Adult Swim products.

If humor just doesn’t work for your company, then it’s better to take a more serious tone. Focus on sharing useful information instead. People will still appreciate it.

One reason humor doesn’t work for many brands is that marketers often don’t enjoy being funny. It’s important to come up with a message you believe in and enjoy creating content around it.

Similarly, if you aren’t interested in something, it’s going to be difficult to create a great social media campaign around it. Don’t spend your time writing cliché jokes for your Facebook page if you don’t like telling them. Focus on what you enjoy and build your campaign around it.

Forgetting Your Audience

You never want to forget who your target customers are.

Nothing will anger your customers more than making presumptuous statements about them. Know what they really want to hear.

One effective way to better understand your target audience is by monitoring and reading Reddit.

Being part of relevant subreddits will teach you more than anything else about how your target audience is likely to react to different types of messaging. Reddit is a tricky platform for marketing, precisely for that reason: It is a community of anonymous users who speak as it is. If they are unhappy, they will tell you right away. It is the best way to learn to be careful with your brand’s messaging without annoying anyone.

Dumb Statements Linger Forever

Always assume that everything on the Internet is there forever. That is why a reputation crisis is never easy to manage. Customers will likely lose interest in another reputation scandal, but they will likely come across your mistakes when researching your brand on Google or ChatGPT.

You may be thinking, the lifecycle of social media is short. Even if something goes wrong, it will grow old quickly.

The reality is: more and more customers research brands online before dealing with them. And your past mistakes may very likely come up in that research. According to the recent Reddit marketing statistics, Reddit threads rank in the top 10 for most branded searches, and in most cases, ranking Reddit threads were created three or more years ago.

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Now that Google is also closing a deal to have access to Instagram content, expect reputation management platforms to be haunting you for years too!

Pro-active reputation management is also essential: Make sure you curate and promote a positive digital footprint around your brand through creating additional brand assets, sharing your reviews on your site and social media channels, and thanking anyone for any good words about your products.

Forgetting Emails is a Form of Social Media

Email marketing is very important for most online stores. It is also a form of social media, even if people don’t usually think of it that way.

First of all, it’s important to create highly engaging emails that stand out. If your emails are boring or too sales-oriented, they will turn people away. Unfortunately, this is a mistake that far too many e-commerce brands make.

You must remember that emails can be shared with anyone. Make sure that you never write anything that reflects poorly on your brand. If you are using automated emails to promote your e-commerce storefront, then you need to read them carefully and make sure they align with your brand message.

Not Being Responsive to Your Audience or Community

One of the biggest mistakes e-commerce businesses make is treating social media solely as an advertising channel. While paid promotions and product posts can certainly drive awareness, brands that use social media as nothing more than a megaphone often alienate their audiences. Customers expect two-way interaction. They want to feel heard, acknowledged, and valued—not just targeted with sales messages.

When companies ignore comments, fail to respond to questions, or delete negative feedback without addressing it, they risk creating the perception that they are detached and unapproachable. Social media is at its core a community platform, not a traditional ad space. By overlooking opportunities to engage with followers, brands lose the chance to build long-term trust and loyalty.

Successful e-commerce brands treat social media as an ongoing dialogue. They use it to answer questions, highlight user-generated content, celebrate customer stories, and join in relevant conversations. When you shift from a one-way broadcast mindset to a community-building approach, you transform casual followers into advocates who not only purchase but also spread the word on your behalf.

Conclusion

In the rush to be viral or relevant, many brands forget the fundamental rules of social media: know your audience, maintain brand consistency, respond promptly to requests, and remember that the internet never forgets.

Keep in mind that every online interaction contributes to your brand’s lasting digital footprint. Create brand messaging guidelines, make sure your social media team is well-trained on what to say online and how, and never entrust your public voice to freelancers or people who are not well familiar with your site.

Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty is the brand and community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas and the founder of Viral Content Bee. Ann’s search engine optimization career began in 2010. She is the former editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal and contributor to prominent search and social blogs, including Small Business Trends and Mashable.
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