Consumers are increasingly engaging with brands on social media across various platforms, making social media one of marketing's top responsibilities. There are some behaviors on social media that brands should avoid, though, according to a report from Hootsuite.

In asking more than 4,500 consumers across 3 countries which behaviors that brands they follow on social media engage in that have a negative impact on how they view them, a leading 34% of respondents cited brands being too focused on self-promotion. In fact, brands being overly promotional has long been a leading source of frustration for consumers who follow brands on social media. 

Following close behind, roughly one-third (32%) of consumers said that low-quality content has a negative impact on how they view brands on social media.

Notably, the way in which brands engage with comments or messages can also prove a turn-off for followers. More than one-quarter (27%) cited poor engagement with public comments or direct messages as having a negative impact on their perception of the brand, and likewise some 26% pointed to slow responses to public comments or direct messages as a turn-off. This is supported by previous research showing that social media users expect quick responses to messages posted on brands' digital channels. 

Meanwhile, it’s clearly more of an annoyance to followers for brands to post too much than for them to do too little: only about 1 in 7 (14% of) respondents said that infrequent posts cause them to have a more negative view of brands they follow on social media.

Finally, with authenticity being a key theme on social media, the report finds that 56% of consumers think that brands should be more relatable on social media.