Seven social media outreach mistakes that cost you replies

The seven mistakes

1. A generic opening. Fix: refer to something the person actually said.
2. Pitching in the first message. Fix: offer one useful thing and ask a light question.
3. Sending too much too fast. Fix: keep to small daily amounts and ramp new accounts slowly.
4. Contacting people with no connection to the offer. Fix: only message people who showed a relevant interest.
5. Following up again and again. Fix: follow up once, then stop.
6. Ignoring what the network allows. Fix: learn which actions each network lets you take and respect its limits.
7. Not tracking results. Fix: note which sources and messages get replies and repeat them.

Where Avocado Leads fits

Avocado Leads does the collecting, ranking and pacing part of this work. You paste a post, a profile or a search, and it saves the people who commented, reacted, followed or match, then scores each person from 0 to 100 on buying language, how recently they were active, how well they fit your business and how reachable they are.

It then runs a paced follow or connect campaign from your own signed-in browser, with a message after where the platform allows one. It never asks for your social passwords, and it keeps to hourly, daily, weekly and monthly caps for each network. The limits that come with each platform are on the platforms page, and the safety page explains what it will not do.

A better opening

A weak opening says: "Hi, I help companies like yours grow with our platform. Can I send you a demo?" It could go to anyone and asks for a lot.

A stronger opening says: "I saw your question about which tool to use for invoices. We hit the same problem last year and a simple spreadsheet fixed it. Happy to share it if useful." It names what they said, gives something, and asks for nothing.

How to recover after a mistake

1. If a message sounded like spam, do not send another straight away.
2. If someone says no, thank them and stop. Do not argue.
3. If a network warns you, pause and slow down.
4. Write down what went wrong and change the template or the source.

A check before you send

• Does this message mention something this person actually said?
• Would it make sense if it were sent to only them?
• Is it short enough to read in ten seconds?
• Does it ask for something small, or nothing?

Key takeaways

• Refer to something the person actually said.
• Do not pitch in the first message.
• Keep amounts small and ramp up slowly.
• Follow up once, then stop.

Questions people ask