Social Media Best Practices

Social media best practices simply equate to playing by the rules, believing in social karma, making nice with those around you. In a way, it’s kind of like preschool meets high school. You need to listen and learn the rules before you can be one of the popular kids.

Our Top Social Media Best Practices

• Friday Follow (#FF) Twitter users that you respect and value as leaders or friends
• Do not misuse Twitter hashtags or you’ll use not only lose followers, you could be booted from Twitter
• Like links and status updates on Facebook that truly touch inspire, or educate you
• Set up a real company page (not profile) on Facebook
• Set up a real company page (not profile) on LinkedIn
• Use a real picture of you or your company logo as an avatar
• Tweet more than just your own content
• Retweet (RT) content and don’t try to take credit for content that isn’t your own work
• Thank people who RT your content or post comments that are positive
• Remember that everyone has an opinion and you cannot please every Twitter or Facebook user
• Don’t automatically post between Twitter and Facebook as it is both confusing and annoying to users
• Understand that four tweets per day is okay, but four Facebook posts per day is not
• Embrace your competition on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and you will pick up a few pointers and marketing tips
• Never send sales pitches through Twitter DMs, LinkedIn email, and Facebook messages
• Love your personal profile and company page and fill it up with great information, keywords, and content that matters
• Encourage your employees to use social media, but empower them with instruction, best practices, and tools
• Know social media takes time to learn and participate, so plan for it within your marketing budget or weekly schedule
• Always make it easy for people to share your content and find profiles on your profile and/or your company page
• Embrace the virtual you and know others will embrace you too

Four Points to Remember About Social Media Marketing

• Listen before you speak. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all work differently and what is acceptable on one website is not necessary “cool” on the other. Listen and watch, even stalk if you must. But don’t do anything before you’re comfortable that you know what is considered good and bad behavior.
• Figure out who your target market is before you engage. Figure out the social landscape of your industry, customers, and prospects before you jump in fully. Check out your competitors, your local audience, and your industry gurus to decide if and how you’d like to interact with them.
• Create some good content. Yes social media is about sharing, but it is also about providing value. You need to create your own content, as well as share other people’s content.
• Give social media time. You won’t be a social media superstar overnight, so take a deep breath and sit back and relax. You’ll realize Twitter is pretty darn cool, late night chats offer great insight, and you can actually have new business come to you via LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Still feeling confused? Possibly we just made is worse. But have no fear, there are lots and lots of social media specialists available to walk you through the confusion.