Social media seems like a big old scary jungle with all of the tricks you need to learn. One of these is social media etiquette. Just how do you act on social media for your business? How do you reply, comment back, engage fans correctly, avoid any bad eggs, stay professional, etc.? This can be overwhelming, which makes several people think that they should just avoid it all together.
But in fact, social media etiquette isn't as terrifying - actually, social media alone isn't as terrifying as you may think! I am going to take a look at 7 easy etiquette tips to help you create and maintain an impactful and successful social media campaign.
1. How Do You Respond When Someone Comments or Mentions You? When it comes to social media, one thing that really scares several people is how to respond to comments or mentions. Do you say something grand and eloquent? Do you say something sassy? Or do you just ignore it and hope for the best?
First, you should always respond whether in the form of a like, favorite or re-tweet. Second, you should keep your responses short and sweet. Many times, you just have to respond with a "thanks!" There are only a handful of times where you have to respond with something more in-depth, but you can easily use your discretion.
2. How Do You Address a Negative Comment or Mention? If you only know one thing about the Internet, you know that there are people out there called trolls. They love to argue and comment negatively, no matter what. This means that at some point, you might have a negative comment or mention, but what should you do?
The first step is to make sure you don't react to it. Yes, you might want to respond sarcastically or show just how wrong the person is, but this can make you look incredibly unprofessional. Inform the person that you are looking into the matter and then respond once you've thought through what to say. Make sure it is always cordial and attempt to answer the complaint professionally. You can even offer to help the person more if they contact you, giving you the chance to address the problem in more detail.
3. Should You Post About Sales On a Holiday or Remembrance Day? Posting about sales for most holidays is fine for businesses. However, you should always consider posting about sales before and after wishing people a happy holiday on the actual day. In most cases, you won't face too much backlash for holiday posts (there are always those who can never be pleased, remember!). However, you might face backlash for posting about sales on remembrance days.
Days such as September 11th, December 7th, Remembrance Day (Canada), and various others in different countries are set aside to remember those who were lost in wars or tragedies. Many see businesses using that day for sales as a business that doesn't care. You can always post a remembrance post, but if you don't want to, you should simply avoid posting on that day.
4. Keeping Things Consistent is Vital. Having a consistent social media strategy is a great way to help maintain followers. If you approach Twitter completely different from Facebook, it won't look like it belongs to your company. Develop one voice across all platforms and post similar material to each. If you're sharing a link to an article you enjoy, share it on every channel, not just one. Chances are, all of your followers will enjoy it, not just those who follow you on one social site. In addition, if you post about specific things such as how-to posts for organization or tips on car maintenance, make sure you stick to the same theme throughout all of your posts. Consistency in all forms is key!
5. Interacting With Others is a Great Idea! In order to build and maintain a great social media base, you need to interact with your clients and followers. In fact, this is one of the ways to drive engagement and get more people involved. This will help you boost client relations while also boosting revenue.
Interacting with those who follow you is a great idea but they are not the only ones you should be interacting with. Who else? Simple. Find other industry leaders and comment and interact with them. Post comments on blog posts, reply to tweets and re-tweet information you find valuable, and do basic social media interaction. This can help you build a great network of resources for your own blogs and social sites while also promoting your business to others who might be reading the comments. In fact, you might find that the person you are interacting with is more willing to promote your business or even use you as a resource. Great thought, isn't it?
6. Your Face Isn't an Egg; Upload a Profile Photo. Something that really takes away from any social media profile is when it isn't complete. Many people can view an incomplete profile as a spam account since many have learned spammers don't take the time to complete things. One of the first things you should do is upload a profile photo. You might find people are more likely to follow and trust your social site when you do so, especially once you fill out every little detail possible.
7. Should You Have A Separate Personal Account? Yes. You want to keep your personal updates separate from your professional ones because it is vastly more professional. Your clients might enjoy a cat meme or two, but if you are constantly uploading pictures of your adorable kitten Mr. Fluffy McSassy-pants, clients will get tired of it.
You also don't want to post something about being frustrated with a television show, a person in your life, or anything else involved in your personal life on your business page. If you plan on doing more personal updates, get a separate, personal account and leave your business account for business-related tweets only.
In Closing
Following these top social media etiquette tips is a great way to ensure that you have a successful social media strategy. You will find that following these tips will help you keep your follower base, as well as growing it and you will eventually start bringing in more revenue. Great social media etiquette is one of the best ways to ensure you have a powerful campaign no matter what!