Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media For Your Business

Is Your Social Etiquette Hurting Your Business

Are you posting to your social media sites with posts just about you or your business? Are you also just posting promotional offers day after day? If so, you could be hurting your presence on the social media platforms.

Social Media For Business Infographic

The above infographic is by The Steel Method and is a handy reminder of the do’s and don’ts of social media for business.

Here’s a story to help you relate to the right and wrong things to do. Let’s say you are out with a group of friends and you start talking about ‘you’ and your business, about how great you are, how affordable you are etc. What do you think your friends would be thinking?

I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be ‘following you’ or wanting to hear more about you…would they? No.

Now let’s pretend you are out with your friends and you are offering them information about great things you’ve seen, fun things to share, handy tips, great images…things that interest them…do you see the difference?

Boosting Your Credibility and Your Brand

Social media is about building relationships and boosting your credibility and brand. It is an important brand building strategy. It isn’t about promoting your business in every post. If you do that you are doomed to fail. If you do want to promote your business, remember the 80/20 rule as a minimum! Post at least 4 posts of interest to your 1 promotional post.

If you don’t your followers will fade and you won’t make contact with the people important to you…your customers.

You have to be seen as a person who is an expert in your field and to do that you have to post regularly with interesting content and not just bombard your followers with promos.

You have to share and talk about other businesses too…yes, even your competitors may have a great tip to share once in a while. If you do, your competitors may also reciprocate and share something they like of yours.

A Necessary Evil

Many of my customers don’t like posting to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc., as they feel it is too time consuming for what appears to be no visible reward. This is where I believe it to be a necessary evil. Your potential customers ARE on social media. They are watching, playing and observing.

They may not be active on your profile, but if you do it right, you will reach them sub-consciously or if it’s Google+ you may be seen in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

Think of a business you follow that provides posts of interest. You remember their name or even if you don’t, you know where to find them on Facebook etc., you only have to do a search. If you required a service that they provided in the future, you are more likely to call them if they proved themselves to be experts in your mind beforehand.

From that statement can you see why you need to put your business on at least a few of the major social media platforms, if you haven’t already.

Be Consistent

An important part of social media posting is being consistent. As with all components in your business, consistency is key. If you post every day for a week and then only once in the next month, then it is, as you might think, a waste of your time. You need to post regularly and at a time when you know your followers are on the platforms of your choice.

Don’t post at midnight because you are awake…if all your followers are asleep. By the time they wake up your Tweet or Facebook post is long gone in their news feed. The only way they will see it is if they have ‘notifications’ checked and many people don’t even know to do that.

The main point to remember ‘to do’ is to be consistent and provide interesting posts and ‘don’t’ just post promotional material and bombard your followers with topics about ‘you’. Be a person/business people want to be around and as your following grows so too will your brand.

If you would like help with your social media marketing, contact me for a free consultation or ask your questions below.

In the comments below, how do you post to your fans and followers about your business? Do you have a strategy?