Everyone covers things you SHOULD do on social media, so let’s go over some basic things you should never do, especially when clients follow you.
1) Don’t argue with followers. At some point, it’s likely that someone will post a negative review or comment about your company, whether it’s on your profile, or on a social review site like Yelp. Some people will have genuine concerns, while some people will just be trolls. In both cases, it’s best not to argue about the incident listed in the complaint. It’s not productive, and it doesn’t make you look good to be arguing publicly. Worse, it just antagonizes trolls. Instead, post a genuine response apologizing for any disappointment, or offense, and ask the complainant to call your office so you “can get to the bottom of the matter”. Then you can discuss the issue privately. This will usually stop those looking to stir up trouble.
2) Don’t just promote yourself. Unless you genuinely have something to offer (such as new course, blog or article), don’t just constantly promote your site. After all, people will get bored and unfollow you if all they see if “Need the best accountant in town? Call John Doe today!” Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with announcing or giving away your new book, or posting a press release about your New Best Seller. Your followers do want to share in your good news, and those posts tend to get likes because people are genuinely happy for you. But, that falls more under the category of sharing good things from your life, versus blatant self-promotion. Instead, focus on sharing things that will either help your followers (such as a weekly tip), or posts from your life. If you need some ideas, check out this podcast or we are happy to assist you with our marketing services.
3) Don’t ignore customer posts. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people making their profiles a one-way street. If you ignore clients who are commenting on your posts, messaging you, or otherwise interacting with your page, it comes across as bad customer service. Even a simple “Thank you!” when someone says they like your service is a great place to start. After all, social media is social, so if you wouldn’t ignore someone’s response in an in-person conversation, don’t ignore it on social media.
4) Don’t over- or under-post. Posting only once a week can be just as bad as posting five times a day. EdgeRank gives fresher content a higher score, so posting only once or twice a week limits the number of people who see your posts. However, posting every hour comes across as spam, especially if all your content is very similar. A good general rule is to aim to post once a day, and definitely no more than three times a day. Of course, these things can be subjective, so if you want to try posting a little more often (or a little less) and see if it affects engagement, you can use Facebook Insights and bit.ly to help you find out.
5) Don’t spread yourself too thin. While having a presence on social media is imperative in this day and age, don’t commit to more profiles than you can manage. While you can use many posts across multiple platforms, some do require different character counts, or different elements such as images. If you’ve created profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram, make sure you have time to use them, or delete the ones you don’t have time for. Just having the profiles isn’t enough.
If someone Google’s you, these profiles should show up high in your search rankings. If half of the accounts are inactive, that doesn’t look very good. Not maintaining profiles will also cause whatever followers you do have to unfollow you. It would be better to pick the one’s that are the best fit for your business, and focus on those.
If you still have any questions about what you can do to improve your social media presence, get in touch today!
Information Credit to Lindsey Dicks of Celebrity Sites
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