Social media accounts that are only partially completed are hard to take seriously, because they automatically appear less professional. Choose a name or handle that easily identifies you and your business, and take the extra few minutes to thoughtfully fill out the ‘About You’ information. Use your logo or a tasteful portrait of yourself for the avatar.
While it’s a good strategy to have a presence on all the social media platforms that relate to your business, managing multiple profiles on the same network is cumbersome and may not be worth the extra effort. If you choose to keep your personal and professional personas separate on social media, be sure you’re consistent with the types of content you share via your business profile, so your clients know which account to follow.
Use common sense when you share. What you put out there becomes a representation of you or your business in the social media landscape. But don’t let this stop you from making yourself known on topics that matter. Having no voice pertaining to your business and industry could be worse than a few people disagreeing with you. Be proud of who you are and what you represent as a business while staying aware of the image you’re crafting as a result.
Don’t ask your Twitter followers to ‘please retweet’, and don’t beg your Facebook friends to ‘like’ your page. Instead, get creative. You can still accomplish those tasks, but you’re better off earning them with helpful, share-worthy content.
Not every Twitter follower is a real person. How can you tell? If they’re following 20,000 people but have zero followers, chances are they’re fabricated. Don’t join 20 groups on LinkedIn and post the same self-promotional message in all of them, and then leave. That’s just rude!
Should you run into an issue that causes a flurry of criticism on social media, the worst thing you can do is try and hide from it. Rather than delete comments, try and respond as best you can, and don’t become defensive. Work to remedy the issue and let those who cared about it online know when it’s resolved.
Successful social media abides by the Goldilocks principle — posting frequency isn’t too much or too little, but just right. Constant posting has a negative effect that can lead to quick unfollows and unsubscribes. With Twitter, you can tweet a half dozen times per day and be fine. On Facebook, aim for one to two posts a day, and the same goes for LinkedIn.
It’s lazy and in poor taste to take the same social post and continue to share it over and over again on the same networks. If you want to revisit previous content, get creative with your delivery and reword it or use a new image rather than repeatedly reposting the same stale message.
Tagging others in photos is a great way to introduce you and your business to their friends, but before you do it, ask for permission. Many value privacy and don’t look kindly on others who call them out without warning. Unexpected tagging is a move that could cost you friends, fans or followers.
Your business should use social media to both nurture existing relationships and develop new ones by sharing useful content.
(Write to me at staystylish24x7@gmail.com)
