It’s always easy to talk about “best practices,” but today we want to talk about social media worst practices. These are social media snafus you want to avoid.
- Don’t have all of your social media updates be pushed out by a post scheduler. When every post your followers see is noted as being “posted by fill in the blank” scheduler they will know you’re not “live” and may move onto a business who can actually take the time to interact and share in real time. If you’re going on vacation or attending a conference, it may make sense to schedule posts, but not for every day posting. Plus, Facebook penalizes auto scheduled posts (unless you’re using their scheduler) and your posts won’t be in front of as many readers as you’d like.
- Don’t avoid tragedies. Regardless of the type of business you run, if there is a world tragedy, acknowledge it. Offer your condolences. You don’t need to be heavily involved or offer opinions (unless that’s your style) but you do want to let your followers know you are aware of what’s going on in the outside world.
- Humor is in the eye of the beholder. If you aren’t certain that what you are going to say is truly funny, don’t say it. If you have to explain your joke, it’s not funny. Humor can be a minefield for a brand.
- Trending topics are a great way to get your business name into the social media fray, but if you can’t truly tie your business to the trending topic then your efforts are patently self-serving.
- Not responding to critics, or worse yet, deleting their comments. If you have critics, and one is bold enough to voice displeasure, there may be more unhappy clients who are talking about you off line. When they step up and voice an unhappy opinion online, it’s a great way for you to shine in the customer service arena. Answer on your page. If the conversation becomes heated, write online, “Hey, let’s get on the phone to talk about this.” Let your followers see that you are involved and concerned.
Are you making any of these social media mistakes? Now that you’re aware you can take steps to remedy the situation, right?