Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) – a time to break out the apple cider, lay in a stock of tasty snacks for the little goblins, and prepare to celebrate the return of the Great Pumpkin.

As you steel yourself to face a night of unthinkable terror, make sure that common social media marketing mistakes don’t creep out from the fog to send your businesses’ fans and followers screaming into the night. Absolutely nothing could be scarier than losing the social following that you worked so hard to build.

Here’s a frightening rundown of some the most blood-curdling mistakes you can make that are absolutely guaranteed to drive your social fans and followers away faster than you can scream “Zombie!”

Don’t Be the Bloodsucking Salesperson from Hell
Ever noticed that “social media” has the word “social” in it? Social media is a place where users go to be entertained and informed, not beaten bloody about the head with a high-pressure sales message. Keep it light, keep it loose, and above all – keep your blatant promotional messages in soft-sell mode and equal to less than 20 percent of your total posts.

Don’t be a Grammatical Ghoul
Free spelling and grammar-checking tools are readily available yet the number of annoying mistakes made on the typical company web property is enough to scare the Dickens out of anyone. To err may be human – you are human, right? – but many companies don’t even seem to be trying. Grammatical errors make your content more difficult to read and comprehend, and may give readers the impression that you just don’t care.

Don’t be the Invisible Man or Woman
Your fans and followers are just that: fans and followers. Don’t scare them away by not staying in touch on a regular basis. Share useful and entertaining content that inspires and engages. Encourage their feedback and reply whenever they reach out to your company. If you can’t find the time to keep your social accounts updated with fresh content on a regular basis, find someone in your organization who can, or consider outsourcing your social media updates to a qualified freelancer.

Don’t Terrorize Your Audience with Irrelevant Content
Remember that your audience voluntarily chose to engage with your company because they want to receive information and ideas related to whatever niche you’re in. Don’t drive a stake through the heart of that relationship with “filler” content that has nothing to do with your company or niche. Create an editorial calendar with at least a month’s worth of post topics penciled in at any one time – this ensures that you’ll never be short for ideas and have to resort to improvising a post “on the fly.”

Don’t Drive Your Audience Batty with too Much Text
The scariest trick you could ever pull on your audience is to make them read too much. Text-heavy posts are downright Transylvanian, and will drive down both your engagement and shares. You need to think visually as in photos, videos and graphics. If you have something that truly needs to be said such as a special report, consider linking to it from within your post.