It’s football season once again, and the entire Crystal Media team is getting our head in the game! Our team stands divided when it comes to the NFL; Crystal is a die-hard Broncos fan, Jess is a black-and-gold-bleeding Steelers fan, Jamee is a part of the Pack, Pauline cheers for the Chargers, and Julie… isn’t into football. But while we may not see eye-to-eye when it comes to teams, we all come together to help small business owners play the game of social media. Social media may not seem like a game to you, but there are a lot of similarities. Games and social media marketing both involve strategy, fun, and being a team player. And just like you may drop the ball during the big game, you’re probably going to drop the ball in your social media strategy, as well. After all, you’re only human.

But we have good news for every business owner terrified to make a mistake: In the grand scheme of your business, a mistake is not the end of the world. Here’s why:

You want relationships, not just likers.

Worried that your customers are going to unfollow you because of a social media blunder? The die-hard fans and those who are most likely to make a purchase… are not. It is rare for someone to unlike a page because they posted something twice or missed a word in their post. Unless you post something that offends or upsets your customers, your slip up will be old news in no time!

Your customers are humans, too.

Show us a person who claims to have never made a mistake online… and we’ll show you a liar. Everyone makes mistakes, which is why most people are sympathetic when a company makes a little mistake in their posts.

A sense of humor goes a long way.

Mistakes allow you to show customers your sense of humor and ability to react to negative situations. Many companies have come back from a social media mistake with a quirky comeback and garnered more positive attention than they got for the original intended post! Just make sure to be honest with customers if they point out your mistake, and apologize for any confusion.

The message still gets across.

Typically, mistakes get posted because you didn’t notice the error. If you didn’t notice, there is a good chance that many readers won’t notice either. Unless your error makes the post confusing or unreadable, it can still get the same engagement than the perfect post you had planned.

It’s an easy fix.

Thank you, Facebook, for listening to your users! Gone are the days when a misspelled or repeated word meant deleting and reposting. The “Edit” option on all of your posts makes it simple to erase those oops moments. All you need to do is click the down arrow in the top right corner of your post, click edit, and fix the issue.

Beating yourself up for a little mistake is bad for business. Of course, it’s always good to try to be as professional as possible and keep mistakes to a minimum. You can try to avoid mistakes by:

• Having someone else review before you post
• Stepping away from your post before it goes live, then returning to edit it
• Avoiding posting from your cell phone

Don’t stress! You can still be an MVP with a few mistakes under your marketing belt.