Are you tired of hearing about social media yet? Have your colleagues ventured into the social media pool already and you’re barely ready to stick your toe in the water? Maybe you set up accounts already, but the thought of having to update them constantly makes you incredibly overwhelmed?
It’s ok. You share this trepidation with many business owners today.
It’s true, one of every eight minutes spent online has something to do with Facebook. And, many business owners use Facebook, but the programmers at Facebook are constantly switching the rules and moving the location of the buttons and windows like this is a game of musical chairs and you are totally blindfolded. Of course it’s hard to keep up with your competition on Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn and your blog, Yelp and Google+.
However, if you are going to attempt to create a professional online presence for your personal or business brand, there are a few things you will need to know to avoid looking like a novice:
Nobody cares about your dietary schedule.
Sorry, it’s true. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are necessary to fuel your body, but not to fuel the interest of your social media followers. The only exceptions are a) if you are attending a business breakfast/luncheon/dinner for a professional organization and you would like to share that you are in attendance with your followers, b) one of your clients owns an eatery or c) you are marking a time in history or participating in a promotion (i.e. 11/11/11 is going to be Fry-Day at McDonald’s and I plan on checking in from FourSquare).
Stop calling it Tweeter, Twitner, Twitface, FaceSpace, LinkIn, TootSuite and The Facebook.
Everytime you call it “Tweeter” instead of Twitter, a little social networking birdie falls out of the tree.
If you can’t get the names of the social media applications correct, please hire a professional to coach you. It’s like double-parking in Lincoln Park; you just don’t do it.
Watch your followers carefully on Facebook.
If you created a Facebook page months ago and have not been back to check it in a while, stop reading this post and go to your page. It’s ok, I’ll wait…Here’s the thing with Facebook – if you allow people to make comments on your page when they become a follower, they can write whatever they want on your page. Is this is a bad thing? Not necessarily, but you must remain diligent in viewing the content on your Facebook page, as well as who follows you on Twitter and who is looking at your profile on LinkedIn.
Having a page for your business on Facebook DOES NOT mean that everyone will see your personal information (in theory).
Your personal profile can be kept completely separate from your business profile. What you will need to know is where to go to create a page for your business – http://www.facebook.com/pages. You’re welcome!
Your social media profiles are not a news ticker. If you are using your social media profiles to repeat (or “retweet”) news from reputable news sources without any original thought, you are abusing social media and people will not read your posts much longer. If you want to break some news to your followers, add your own unique spin to it.
For example, the Kim Kardashian wedding will be airing this weekend (and will probably be on an infinite loop on E! in the future weeks) and you own a floral business. Instead of mentioning that the special will air like everybody else, create a post about “the best flowers for a black-and-white themed wedding”. Now, you’ve gone one level deeper into the news story and may even secure a customer or two from your creative post.
All right, what faux pas have you seen businesses make with social media? Share your comments below!
