With the average person now having five social media accounts and spending almost two hours a day on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, companies clearly need to sit up and pay attention to these channels and adapt their strategies to build and maintain a positive social media presence.
But social media is still a bit of a minefield, and there are many things that can go wrong when using it for professional reasons. For example, you’ll need to ensure that any personal and business profiles are kept separate to avoid any personal opinions going out disguised as company ones!
We came across an article on the Telegraph that offered some tips for businesses using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and used it to put together the following dos and don’ts:
DO: Find discussion groups relating to specific subjects, and get involved in the conversation.
DO: Keep an eye on what key influencers in your field are talking about.
DON’T: Use automatic templates; make sure your messages are personalised and they’ll be far more engaging.
DON’T: Ask for endorsements from people you’ve never met or worked with.
DON’T: Push your other social media posts through LinkedIn; posts should be targeted according to the specific audience.
DO: Use Facebook analytics to find out the busiest times people are online and adjust the schedule of your posts and interactions accordingly.
DO: Respond to comments on reviews on your page, even if they are negative.
DON’T: Get into feuds though! Before you post anything, stop and think about how it will make your company look and whether you mind if all your customer to see it.
DON’T: Be afraid to be funny. Facebook is one of the least formal platforms and has no character limit, so there’s no need to be concise – the chattier, the better.
DO: Ask yourself whether what you’re saying is actually adding value before you click ‘Tweet.’
DO: Reach out to people. By getting into the right conversations with the right people you could improve your brand image, increase awareness and get more followers. Just one interaction with the right person can really open doors.
DON’T: Jump in on any old hashtag. Yes, it’s tempting to see what hashtags are trending and add your own input to the topic; but if it doesn’t fit with your brand identity, users will see right through this and smell your desperation to get noticed!
DON’T: Use the automatic Direct Message function – at best it’s poor taste, and at worst it can be viewed as spam.
Image: Cloud Solutions – Creative Commons by NEC available under a CC BY 2.0 license
