Being successful in social media can hinge on the detail, your ethics and personality online. Here are 12 social media tips to take you from zero to hero.

1. 12 Social Media Tips
For your 2014 online strategies

2. #1 Be consistent
 Engage, share and create content on a daily basis. It is
better to be present a little and
your news feeds once a week.
often than to blast

3. #2 Be helpful and sincere
 If your only goal in social media is to sell, you will fail.
 Treat your connections with respect, go out of your way to be
helpful and be sincere … it
your updates.
will shine through in

4. #3 Solve problems
 By knowing
your audience and the
challenges they face you can solve their problems.
 Set up alerts and searches for questions you can provide
answers to.
 Share content that will educate,
your audience.
interest and assist

5. #4 The 80/20 rule
 Adhere to the 80/20 rule in your updates. Of the content and
updates you post, 80% should be sourced within your
industry.
 Share and comment on content which is not your own.
 Promote industry leaders (thus elevating your own profile)
and credit the content to them.
Only two of every 10 updates should
link back to your own site.

6. #5 Complete your profiles
 There is nothing as unprofessional as a profile not showing
information about you or your company.
 An incomplete profile shows a lack of attention to detail.

7. #6 Think before you post
 If unsure about how I’ve worded something, comment on or
replied to someone I will
delete and start again.
 Never post something you don’t want your co-workers or clients
to read.
 Never post something online you wouldn’t say offline.
 Scheduling your updates gives you a chance to look
at
your posts with fresh eyes before they go live.
often edit scheduled posts!
I

8. #7 Proof read, always
 Typoe and grammer erors look as bad social media as they
do on you’re websight.
 A pourly spealt update is not something you wan’t your
audiance to judg you on (or notice you four).

9. #8 Personal vs Company
 Keep your professional and personal profiles separate.
 Bear in mind that many professionals will Google you, search
on LinkedIn or better yet … find you on Facebook before they
meet you face to face.
 Be aware of what you want to portray both personally and
professionally.

10. #9 No badmouthing
 “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing”.
 No badmouthing colleagues, competitors, clients or
connections … ever. You will only look unprofessional.

11. #10 Complaint resolution
 Respond to criticism or complaints quickly and positively.
 Move the conversation offline in order to deal with the issue
in detail and to the satisfaction (if possible) of the person or
people involved.

12. #11 Blocking comments
 How you deal with negative or unprofessional comments will
only strengthen your position and online
image.
 Often unfair, unrealistic or unprofessional comments will bring
others to your
defence.
 Social media is just that … social. If you take away the ability to
engage, you are taking away the most powerful aspect of social
media.

13. #12 Be appropriate
 Be relevant to the network you are engaging in
and don’t post the same updates across all channels.
 Your audience will not be the same so neither should your
message be.
 For example, you may have written this post about social media
guidelines for professionals and want to share across LinkedIn,
Google +, Twitter and Facebook. The posts could be tailored for
the relevant networks as show on the next slide.

14. Different ways to share your link online
Facebook “Have you ever had something nasty posted
about you on social media?” YES or NO
LinkedIn “How important are social media
guidelines? Do you or your company have a list of
documented guidelines available to all staff?
Twitter “Be consistent, be sincere [link] Social Media
Guidelines … for professionals”
Google + [note: due to the SEO value of G+ I will often
post more of the content than I would on any other
channel. Rather than a catchy title or summary you can go
into details and use your key phrases on this network]