Social media offers an excellent opportunity for your businesses to reach a wide market. However, the etiquette for being online is quite different for your business social media accounts. Unlike your personal accounts where you can say and share most anything, you need to err on the side of caution about what you share on the company page. Here is a list of things that you should never do with your business account.
1. Do Not Argue on Social Media
Losing your temper and engaging in public arguments is a big “NO” for your business. People will talk badly about your business in the comment section because they are angry or they heard a rumor. Even though the comments can be down-right rude, remain professional in your response. Remember that it is not personal. You are there to serve the customers and anything they say can help you improve your services.
2. Do Not Make Sexual References
Making sex jokes on your business’s Twitter account is the quickest way to lose both your loyal and potential customers. The material you post can be interpreted as insensitive and offensive. Your customers will assume your business has no values, and they won’t want to be associated with your brand.
3. Refrain From Being Too Political
Politics is a touchy subject. While it is okay for people to post their political views, as a business, it is wise to remain neutral. Your business serves clients with different political views. If you take a side, those who do not agree with you may stay away from your brand.
4. Do Not Limit Your Brand to One Platform
Your business should never depend on one social account. For example, Facebook was started as a social networking site. It’s meant to help your business connect with other people in the industry. On the other hand, Twitter is sort of like a mini-blogging platform. You write your tweet and share it with others. This platform is great if you want to connect with other businesses. Then you can use Pinterest to share your websites blog posts. Please also remember to share pictures of your company doing fun things on Instagram. Using all available platforms will help your business widen its reach.
5. Always Reread Your Posts Before Publishing Them
Do not forget to edit your posts. Typos and errors cannot always be avoided when typing; therefore, make a point of proofreading the post before publishing it. When you post information with typos, people judge you the wrong way. They assume that since you don’t proofread your posts, your products and services are also ‘half-baked.’ As a result, people may not buy your products.
6. Never Take Advantage of a Tragedy
If something terrible is happening around the world, and you want to talk about it on your business page, be sensitive and tactful. Do not take the tragedy and use it as an opportunity to sell your product because you will be viewed as insensitive and fake. It is always in bad taste to try to make a buck off of another’s hardship.
7. Stop Being Too Serious
Although it’s okay to be formal in your office, it’s not encouraged in the online world to be formal 100% of the time. Engage with your customers in a friendly manner and take this opportunity to have some fun with it. The more you let your guard down in a planned way, the more you can humanize your brand. Use tasteful humor, jokes, or personal anecdotes to show your consumers the lively side of your brand. People tend to buy more from companies they can relate to.
8. Don’t Ignore Comments
Take time to check on your customer’s comments and always reply back. Feedback will allow you to know how your consumers feel about your product. More so, it will allow you to establish a relationship with your audience, which will last for many years. Your online engagement can also include responding to your customer reviews. We even wrote a whole post on why customer reviews are important. Engaging with your clients and potential clients online also humanizes the brand and pushes up the percentage of a sale.
9. You Must Have a Plan
You simply cannot just wake up one morning and decide to post on your business page without knowing what to say. Your brand represents a certain lifestyle. Therefore, you have to plan your posts to curate a particular response. Here are some questions that need to be answered when working on your social media plan.
- How often are you going to tweet or post on your timeline?
- Which platforms will you use?
- Which topics are you going to talk about?
- What message and theme do you want to get across?
- What is the voice of your brand?
- Who do you plan to engage with?
- How are you going to measure the effectiveness of your posts?
10. Use Hashtags The Proper Way
If used correctly hashtags can be powerful marketing tools for your business. However, do not overdo it because too many hashtags can be annoying and hard to understand. Choose 1 or 2 hashtags that are relevant to what you’re talking about. Also when using hashtags, please remember to capitalize the first letter in each word or every initial that you use. For Example, if you were wanting to use a hashtag that states “Live your truth in Illinois” you would want to make the hashtag like this #LiveYourTruthIL. The reason you do this is so when someone is using a voice reader, they will read the hashtag properly. If I was to do #liveyourtruthil it would try to read it as all one gargled word.
The rules of online engagement are most definitely different for your business compared to your personal platforms. What you write on your personal social media accounts is your business, but what you post on your company’s page is for everybody to see and judge the entire business as a whole. Therefore, be careful about what you post on your company’s accounts.
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