Before you can connect with someone on a business level, you have to connect with them personally. Social media is a great way to do this, and it’s quickly turned from a viable tactic to a crucial component that must be nurtured and properly managed. Read these seven social etiquette rules to follow on social media to expand your network and increase exposure to your business and the problems you solve.
The Seven Golden Rules: Social Etiquette in Social Media
1. The Seven Golden Rules:
Social Etiquette in Social Media
Before you can connect with someone on a business
level, you have to connect with them personally.
Social media is a great way to do this, and it’s quickly
turned from a viable tactic in business today to a
crucial component that must be nurtured and properly
managed.
The art of conversing in the digital age doesn’t have to
be hard; but just like you had to learn social etiquette
when dealing with people face-to-face, the same
applies when engaging with people online. Over time
and through trial and error you learned it was rude to
interrupt people when they were talking, you learned
tone of voice, and how to address people politely.
Similarly, on different social platforms—LinkedIn,
Google+, Facebook, and Twitter being a few of the
most popular, especially for business purposes—it’s
important to learn what’s acceptable and what’s not.
The Seven Golden Rules
To get you started, we’ve created a social etiquette
guide to social media:
1.[Be aware] Because you wouldn’t
wear a ball gown to a baseball game.
Similarly, you shouldn’t be using hashtags on LinkedIn
(#right?) or writing in short hand (140 characters or
less like you would on Twitter) if you’re posting on
Google+. Each social medium has its own set of rules.
Set up your profile, start following and friending those
you know, and take note of the format and the way
people are posting.
Here are a few quick tips for the “big four”:
(with input from Gabriel Sehringer)
• Twitter—Quick, short messages “tweets” should
be sent out several times a day; informal tone is
generally accepted
• Facebook—Less frequent, more meaningful posts
with a humanizing and personal touch; pictures and
videos generally do well
• LinkedIn—Formal, professional posts are best;
case studies and industry-related articles are good
forms of content to share
• Google+—Visual posts do well on Google+ and
content is indexed by the search engine, making it a
great platform to share any and all content you want
to be known for
It’s also important to look at what’s working and what’s
not. If you’ve created a popular post, look at what time
you posted it, the subject, how many shares, likes, and
follows you gained, and duplicate your efforts.
In terms of blogging, think about adding a call-to-action
(CTA) on the page of a popular post. Doing so will
allow you to garner new leads from an old post. After
all, that’s a key part of generating content in today’s high
touch point world of multiple social media platforms—
use, reuse, and use it again.
2.[Be available]You wouldn’t walk
away from someone if you were in the
middle of a conversation with them.
(Or would you?) Don’t do it online either.
Understand that people want timely replies. If they’re
taking the time to engage with you on social media,
it’s worth your while to get back to them—in a timely
manner.
2. It’s also important to realize that the majority of social
media interactions may and probably will happen when
you’re not at the office. Take a few minutes to respond
to people every couple of hours, hire someone to help
you do it, or schedule automated posts during your
off-hours.
3.[Be polite]“The Cocktail Party
Rule.”HubSpot (THE gurus of inbound marketing
and the software that goes into supporting it) has
created the 80/20 rule to remind us all that it’s
important not to talk too much about ourselves.
Think in terms of a cocktail party—or any kind of
social interaction for that matter—and try to
remember those people who bragged about
themselves the entire time. Maybe you went to school
in the same state, or worked in the same industry, or
otherwise had a similar experience you wanted to
share as they were talking about themselves but you
were never given the chance to chime in. The same is
true if you do this on social media. Engage people in
conversations, don’t just talk at them from a soapbox.
Ask questions about their business, share their content,
and otherwise foster the two-way conversation that
social media is meant to be.
4.[Be relevant] ‘Hey,I just met you,
and this is crazy…’But here,let me
try to sell you something.Understand that
people are engaging with your brand at different
stages of the buyer’s journey. Some are current
customers and hopefully promoters of your brand (if
you’ve developed the relationship properly), others
have never heard of you and need to be introduced to
what you have to offer, who you are, and how you’re
going to be of service to them.
Be sure your content speaks to all consumers of your
content at all stages of the buyer’s journey. The idea
is that visitors can be converted into buyers through
content that is relevant to them as they go from
identifying they have a need (awareness stage), to
weighing their options on which product or service
they’ll purchase to fill that need (consideration stage),
and then who they will ultimately buy from to resolve
their need (decision stage).
Below is a list of suggested content for every stage of
the buyer’s journey (as defined by HubSpot):
• Awareness stage—blog posts, infographics,
articles (informative and used to build rapport)
• Consideration stage—ebooks, landing pages,
white papers (speaks more directly of your
offerings or services and outlines how you can help
customers’ specific problem or need)
• Decision stage—how-to tutorials, free trials, case
studies (gets into the ‘nitty gritty’ of your product
or service and includes testimonials of others)
5.[Be searchable] Knock,knock.
Who’s there? People can’t talk to you if they can’t
find you. Be sure your profile and social handles are
searchable by users. Avoid using random numbers and
symbols for your profile URLs. For most if not all of the
major social media sites, your profile URL is editable.
For instance, on LinkedIn and Google+ you can change
what is listed after the forward slash of the URL. For
example, it’s easier to find and advertise linkedin.com/
in/JohnLennon (and no, he’s not from The Beatles but it
does look like he’s a guy living in NYC doing marketing)
instead of linkedin.com/in/908345oikrjgbnc (this
doesn’t link to an actual profile, but you get the point).
It’s also important to know that most of the time when
brands are being talked about online, they’re not being
properly linked into the conversation. Meaning, people
are making comments about businesses without putting
the “@” symbol beforehand on Twitter, for example. It’s
your job to go out and see what’s being said so you can
weigh in on the comments at hand.
As great as social media is for marketing, it can also
make or break businesses if the bad reviews are constant
and surface to the top of a search. Address criticisms
head on while being professional and polite—and don’t
forget the classic belief that ‘the customer is always
right,’ because it still holds true on social media. If
someone makes a general complaint about your service,
ask them for specific details about their complaint. It’s
also a good idea to apologize publically if a consumer
has had a bad experience and posted about it. As a
business you can ensure it won’t happen again and offer
them a free consultation or product. You can’t win them
all, but you do have to maintain your online integrity
and reputation, or it will quickly be rewritten for you.
Not maintaining a social media presence is like having
potential customers walk up to the front door of your
3. business and you locking the doors and ignoring
them. Why would you do that? (And if you would,
maybe you shouldn’t be in business.) Open the doors,
greet people, and walk them through your business—
and this is precisely what your website and social
media handles should be doing.
6.[Be yourself]‘Hi,my name is…’
People want to talk to you because of who you are.
Don’t be bland and only retweet on Twitter or
only reshare on Facebook. Sure, it’s good to do for
engagement purposes—you want people to do the
same to you—but don’t let it be all that you do. Put
out original content that is a true value add for your
followers and the consumers of your content.
In social media, people want to connect with other
people. It’s always a good idea to have your business be
part of the social conversation, but don’t be afraid to
add in some personal anecdotes that let people in on
who you are.
Things to consider adding to your profile:
• Where’d you go to school?
• What’s your favorite sport team?
• Where can people find you on the weekends?
• What’s your family dynamic like? Do you
have dogs? Cats?
• What’s your favorite hobby?
• Where do you volunteer?
7.[Be proactive] I want to know you.
When you’re just starting out and want to be known
for a particular service or as an expert in a certain
subject, find others like you and start engaging with
them. For instance, if you’re new to an area, search
within the social media platform you’re establishing
and start following other businesses. Similarly, you can
search hashtags (except on LinkedIn) for keywords
relevant to your business. Like, if you sell insurance,
you can search #insurance to see what articles have
been posted for the day, comment on them, share
them with your audience, and create your own original
content based off of them.
There are a lot of “black hat” methods out there that
allow you to buy followers in order to make it look
like you’re more socially legitimate than you are. That’s
one way of doing it, but it’s not sustainable. You want
an organic following that you’ve carved out yourself,
one that will engage with the content and updates you
post, and one that is full of REAL people that have the
potential to be REAL customers. After all, isn’t that the
point of getting your business on social media?
Want to learn more?
Receive more tips and read more about digitally
marketing your business by going to the Yoonek
Concepts blog: blog.yoonekconcepts.com.
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