Ten top tips of what to do and what not to do for Business Social Media use.
DO- Be Social! After all it is social networking. Share content with other users, talk with them and make new friends. Building up a relationship is the core aspect of marketing so it should be no different for social media, lots of companies send Christmas cards to clients and customers so imagine how chuffed they would be if you personally wished them a happy birthday or replied to a comment they made. Starbucks personally deal with every complaint they find on all social media platforms, often offering a refund or replacement if someone says their coffee was cold or didn’t like the service.
DON’T- Be a ‘social schizo’: keep your online presence consistent, its fine to mix some professional advice with casual comments but avoid drastic bias from one week to the next. If people know you are reliable they will come to you for information.
DO- Be human: tweet about the new office toy or who you want to win the match and mix it in with usual promotional stuff, people like knowing it’s not just a robot doing all the talking and it can help them relate to your brand.
DON’T- Be too human! There is a line to mixing personal and professional lives and you should consider how “Bloody old people should stay away from the self-checkout!” might impact your 65+ target audience. Keep it cheerful as nobody wants to hear you rant and if you do, they will stop listening.
DO- Think about tomorrow: Ever heard the term “what goes on the stag do, stays on...facebook!” The internet can be a haunting archive of your past exploits and the same applies for your business. People will always be able to find what you have said in the past so be careful what you say because if you bad-mouth another company you can be pretty sure you will never do business with them, or worse they could bad-mouth you back and more people may listen to them! Similarly posting about your eagerness to do business with a potential client may feed their ego and pay off in the future.
DON’T- Send mixed messages: no matter how many social media platforms you use, keep your content, appearance and approach consistent. There’s no point being all professional on Twitter and then posting pictures of the ‘office paper-aeroplane contest’ on Facebook. Your personality should be the same across however many presences you choose to use.
DO- Analyze your stats: There are plenty of easy to use tracking tools available online to monitor chatter about your brand but the more tech-savvy will be able to determine traffic from your social feeds. This will help you understand where your best traffic is coming from and what is/isn’t working for you. Remember, social media is a form of marketing and you wouldn’t ignore responses to a direct mail campaign would you?
DON’T- SPAM! Never-ever-ever spam! This is the e-devil in many people’s eyes and followers will simply tune out. The gift of social media allows you to connect with your customers so you don’t have to resort to half-arsed marketing techniques. You aren’t looking for a 0.5% hit rate so don’t act like you are. This would probably be your most fatal move on social media. Remember, don’t spam!
DO- Learn how to use it! It might seem simple at first but there are lots of little methods of optimising your social media, on Facebook you can ‘like’ anything anyone does, not too personal because you don’t have to leave a comment but it shows people you are paying attention. On Twitter you can tweet @people, using the ‘@’ symbol before someone’s username directs a tweet at them and it appears in their feed. Placing # before a word optimises that particular tweet to appear if someone searches for that certain keyword. You can also participate in ‘Follow Friday’ where twitter users place ‘#FF’ before someone’s username to recommend others to follow them for example: #FF @rickygervais if you want the best jokes this week! If you actively use the #FF function people may return the favour. There are plenty of little niches like this on all the sites so take time to learn about how they can work for you.
DON’T- Underestimate how much it all counts! There are a million reasons why social media is important for your business and how it will only get bigger so don’t get left behind because you will only look back in regret. It’s not like it is too hard or takes too much of your time, tasks can be delegated and everyone can pitch in so there is no excuse for not getting involved.
If you’re still unsure or would like any help with social media why not contact us and we can teach you how to make the most out of it all. Contact us on:
Email: Info@prodo.com
Tel: 0844 871 7272