Social Media Do’s & Don’ts that Will Help You Keep Up with the Competition

You have started a new website or a new product line and want to reach the potential audience, but don’t know how to get started?

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No worries! Few social media do’s and don’ts will help you achieve the target goal and reach your audience quickly and potentially.

Indeed, considering these social media practices will definitely impact your online presence and social appearance to a large extent.

You might have noticed some social media profiles that seem either too robotic or too personal. All too often, some profiles are inadequate to spread the right message.

Top 10 Social Media Dos

Know your Audience
Be Active but Be Consistent
Time it to Make More of it
Be A Story Teller
Prioritize your Networks
Keep the Audience Informed
Maintain Identity on Different Platforms
Interact with Your Audience
Think of Consequences
Be Responsive yet Polite

Top 10 Social Media Don’ts

Don’t ‘Like’ or ‘Favorite’ Your Post
Don’t Share too Often
Don’t Hesitate to Network
Don’t Make Unhealthy Connections
Don’t Forget your Privacy Settings
Don’t Ignore Customer Comments
Don’t Remove Negative Comments
Don’t Go After Repeated Comments
Don’t Use Automation
Don’t Overlook T&C

Let’s know more about these do’s and don’ts of social media etiquette in detail in the upcoming section.

Social Media Do’s to Keep in Mind

#1. Know your Audience

Try to make a social media profile, keeping in mind your target audience. Make it more user-centric and not personalized to your interests.

The consumers care about the products/ services and how you make them better, though they have nothing to do with who sells the product and why.

Try to share stories that the potential customers can easily relate to.

80% of the overall content must refer to future buyers and existing customers, while the remaining 20% should include stories and perceptions about the product and services being delivered.

#2. Be Active but Be Consistent

Post regularly on social media, but consider not to post too often as it can annoy your customers.

With increasing digitalization and the availability of smart devices, there are numerous things that people want to do on the internet.

So, try to be concise, but keep in mind that your words should be able to make an obvious statement.

In case, you post frequently, your connections or followers can face two significant issues such as: (i) too much or regularly updated information can stop the followers from following your social media profiles, and (ii) the crucial posts can lose its importance within the newsfeeds, and the valuable content may vanish somewhere.

#3. Time it to Make More of it

Always pay attention to analytics and experiment posting on your social media frequently. These top 10 social media do’s and don’ts will help your business outshine.

Timing matters, and so does your promotion tactics. Therefore, keep track of the timings to determine when your followers are most active on social platforms. Then, try to post during that particular time to make a significant change.

Not just timings, but your voice across different social media channels can make a huge difference.

Social media is a great platform to share your thoughts and ideas. However, don’t forget to maintain a perfect balance among all promotional channels such as the website, social media, public, etc.

Make sure your message is precise; yet clear and consistent across various promotional channels.

#4. Be A Story Teller

The way we share information has changed noticeably, but one thing that remains constant is our love for stories.

People used to like stories then and continue to admire it even now. So, be a story-teller and try to spread your message in a way that sounds and appears more attractive to the readers.

Graphics can make your social media channel more appealing and attract your customers towards it.

Your followers would like to come back to your page and read your posts. Make use of cartoons and illustrations wherever possible or try to add signs and scripts to pitch the message interestingly.

Show your excitement throughout the post and binge it up!

#5. Prioritize your Networks

Social media networks are strictly ruled out by some Dos and Donts rules and principles.

Carefully determine the followers’ activities on different social media channels.

Subsequently, figure out what’s the best platform for your business based on your followers’ activity patterns.

The type of business you operate in can select your social media platform.

LinkedIn is considered to be useful for B2B operational networks, whereas the B2C framework recommended Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other similar platforms for promoting their business.

Focus on the promotional tactics and social media selection that’s good for your business as well as the target audience.

#6. Keep the Audience Informed

Content plays a vital role, be it your website, promotional channels, or social media platform.

Different social media channels have a specific set of the audience, so creating content based on the kind of social media channel and its audience is vital.

Read the mind of your audience and then frame content in a way that makes it more understandable.

Add as many details about the product as you can and add some genuine reviews to the social media page.

Try Twitter for rapid-fire discussions, Facebook if you want to ensure healthier community engagement and LinkedIn to channelize business communications in the best possible manner.

#7. Maintain Identity on Different Platforms

It is essential to maintain the brand identity while sharing content across all social media channels.

Your brand must incorporate a clear mission and vision statement. While posting on social media platforms, make sure to maintain the integrity of your business’ goals and objectives.

While sharing information on different social media channels, opt for the same profile picture and identity.

Add the same business name, color scheme, and logo to give recognition to the product while making it more genuine.

Add photos, videos, and other multimedia for better customer engagement.

#8. Interact with Your Audience

This is inevitably true that interacting more with the audience increases your credibility and improves conversion.

Revert quickly with the best answer or assistance as a gesture to say that you care about your audience.

Any criticism or negative comments must be taken with immense patience to ensure better services to the customer in the future.

Ask for recommendations on social media profile to earn more shares. Suggestions help to expand the network further and adding more followers to the list.

Be regular, be consistent, and inform your audience about every single detail of the product to ensure they stay connected.

#9. Think of Consequences

Before responding to any comment, think of the consequences that your answer will bring along.

We are living in an immediate world, and reacting quickly to the notifications becomes a habit.

Focus only on talking about your company’s services and product line to avoid adverse circumstances.

With a policy in place, it’s not an issue with using designated stock responses; however, the real argument rests in responding to customer’s queries or getting involved in a conversation.

Making claims over the competitor’s products can land you in problems. Don’t deviate from the subject matter in your discussions.

#10. Be Responsive yet Polite

You have to be responsive on your social media channel, but make sure that you remain polite throughout your conversations.

You may find it frustrating reading negative or aggressive messages and reviews about the product.

But do not reply in anger to the negative comments and reviews.

Indeed, stay calm and lookout for the best possible reply to the customer’s questions and queries.

Always reply in a professional language as it will result in building up good relations with even those customers who have a negative experience with your product or services.

Excellent customer services possess the capability to reverse such responses.

There’s a vast list of social media do’s and don’ts for business. Do’s list ends here; so, let’s jump to the don’ts.

Social Media Dont’s Every Business Must Avoid

#1. Don’t ‘Like’ or ‘Favorite’ Your Post

Hitting ‘Like’ or ‘Favorite’ on your post doesn’t make sense. After all, you posted it, and it doesn’t seem reasonable to like anything that you have added to the profile.

Make your employees the brand ambassador of your product and let them take this responsibility to ‘Like’, or mark ‘Favorite’ on the material you post.

#2. Don’t Share too Often

Make it a rule to share things only when a final version is available in the market.

If you post too early or reveal the features of the product, which is still in its testing phase, you will kill the integrity of the product. It will destroy the product, and its official launch will make no sense.

#3. Don’t Hesitate to Network

Let’s take a real-world example here. Do not forget to network and always work hard to make connections with the potential audience in whatever way is possible.

Networking, as well as building a relationship with the contacts on social media, will result in earning the trust of the customers. So, focus on building a secure network.

#4. Don’t Make Unhealthy Connections

Just as you would in real life, don’t connect with anyone just because he/ she is following you on one or more social media channels.

Make your own decisions on connecting with people- both personally and professionally as well. Always ask you a question, ‘Is this the one who can represent your business in a good manner?’

#5. Don’t Forget your Privacy Settings

This is something that every one of us must take care of! While sharing material on the internet, you must know that it never goes away.

However, you may delete a post, but the screenshots stay forever. So while taking care of the Privacy Settings, work on protecting your passwords.

Prevent your social profile details from falling into the hands of unauthorized people. Never forget to consider these top social media do’s and dont’s for retreiving excellent business outcome.

#6. Don’t Ignore Customer Comments

Engagement with your customers is essential while active on social media profiles.

If the customer doesn’t feel that you are engaged or concerned about their questions and queries, they may not feel coming back or follow your social media accounts. It may cost you, customers or followers.

#7. Don’t Remove Negative Comments

Rather than deleting the negative comments from the social media profile, consider acknowledging the issue and providing the best alternate solution.

Efficient customer service can turn an unhappy customer into a happy one. It will prevent you and your company from getting involved in PR issues in the long run.

#8: Don’t Go After Repeated Comments

Posting the same information or post over and over again makes it spammy, and the followers will not like to read it repeatedly.

It may cost you a considerable count of followers. Spam messages are annoying and will not attract customers; instead, it would result in losing them.

#9: Don’t Use Automation

Be original while handling customer queries and concerns and do not rely upon robotic processes.

If the customer sense out the robotic reverts, they may lose trust in your product and may feel humiliated.

Build up a good relationship with the followers by answering every query in the best possible manner so that the customer feels attended and engaged.

#10: Don’t Overlook T&C

Every business operates on a set of defined terms and conditions, and your business or your social media profile is not an exception.

T&C exists for the benefit of your business, so all the stakeholders need to stick to them.

Have a clear and concise set of Terms and Conditions that runs your business. Never overlook the do’s and don’ts of social media for business.

Even if very few numbers of people participated in a recent offer or less interest is shown in a new product, don’t forget to abide by the terms and conditions.

Who Should Handle your Business’ Social Media Profile?

A huge array of social media do’s and don’ts exists that companies must consider carefully while active on social media profiles.

The social media expert should understand the peculiarities involved in the process of handling followers on social media platforms.

You must know how to utilize different social channels in the best way.

Your social media accounts can even make you or break you. No matter what, keep the followers informed and engaged at all costs.

The above mentioned social media do’s and don’ts etiquettes ensure an active and compelling online presence while building a sense of trust for the brand.

When it comes to handling the social media platforms, the best practice is that the one who knows every aspect of the company must be given this responsibility to interact with the customers.

However, a know-it-all attitude can sometimes turn into arrogance, and your customers can easily sense it.

There is no harm in replying late to the comments, only after cross-checking the right information with the right people.

Conclusion

It’s time to wrap up, so let’s understand that all the social platforms run on several social media do’s and don’ts guide.

It is vital to consider these guidelines while running a social media account for your business.

Do not forget that your social profiles speak a lot about your product and services, so be careful while handling the same.

Top 10 Social Media Do’s and Don’ts for Your Business