Social media is an exciting way to interact with others. With a few keystrokes and the press of a button, you can communicate with people from all over the world. While exciting, the nature of social media can present problems for many businesses.
While we all have personal social media accounts and are free to manage them as we see fit, a social media account for business needs to be run quite differently to achieve what the business would like from it’s social media efforts.
Dos and Don'ts For Business Social Media
If you are looking to build your brand through social media, you need to learn the in’s-and-out’s of using social media for business purposes. Here are four quick dos and don’ts to get you on the right track:
Dos
Know your Customers
The most important aspect of using social media for your business is to know your customers. Your social media pages should be geared 100% toward your customer’s interests. What you like personally is irrelevant to them; your customers only care about what you can do for them. Focus on posting content your customer will love and can use.
Be Congruent
It’s easy to get caught up with different messages across different platforms when running social media for your business. However, it is vital that you stay consistent on every social media platform you use. Focus on providing your customers with a consistent message throughout every platform.
Be Fairly Active
You will want to be utilizing your social media accounts for your business often. You want to remain engaged without annoying your customers. Each industry is different, but after using social media for your business for a few months you should have a grasp of how often your followers want to hear from you. The key is to avoid spamming.
Build Relationships Online
Social media for business is still social media. The keyword in social media being “social” as you should be interacting with others using the platform. This means you need to be consistently interacting with your audience. You want to have a conversation with your customers on social media. You don’t want to be giving them a lecture. An easy way to build relationships on social media is to add personality to a post on occasion.
Don’ts
Mix Business & Personal
While building relationships and adding personality is great for your business social media accounts, there is a fine line. You want to make sure you do not attempt mixing business and personal endeavors on social media. Always keep your social media for business accounts professional and focused on positioning yourself as an expert in your industry.
Put your Social Media on Autopilot
Never attempt to put your social media accounts on autopilot. If you are to find success using social media in your business practices, you must avoid attempting to automate the processes. Some automation can be beneficial, but you need to be actively engaged to reap benefits form social media.
Be “Spammy”
You can get away with posting on social media accounts more often then you think if you are posting original and entertaining content pertaining to your industry. However, if you continually spam your followers and customers you will hurt your business. Customers follow you on social media for entertainment and education, they don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements and spam all the time.
Ignore Complaints
Some companies avoid social media because they fear a disgruntled customer could take to social media and attempt to destroy their reputation. While this is true, the benefits from social media in the business world far outweigh a potential disaster situation. Learn to handle the situation in a calm and matter-of-fact tone. Get to the bottom of your customers problem and solve it for them. If they are unruly, politely ask them to take the conversation private.
