Social media marketing offers companies excellent CRM and marketing opportunities. However, many business owners invest resources into social media, only to see poor results. To enjoy the benefits of using social media, you have to look beyond lead generation and engagement to the importance of etiquette.
According to a Social Media Examiner report, 89% of marketers use social media primarily for increased exposure. Of course, every company wants positive exposure, and using proper etiquette across all social media platforms allows companies to enjoy the best marketing results.
Basic Etiquette Tips for All Social Media Sites
Before looking at tips specific to popular social media sites, it’s important to be familiar with some basic tips that should be used across all platforms. Whether you’re using Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook, always follow these suggestions. [Tweet this]
- Remember the 80/20 Rule – Always keep the 80/20 rule in mind – 80% of your posts and interactions should be valuable and resourceful, while only 20% of your posts should be self-promotional. Focus most of your time reacting to the posts of others, answering questions, and posting helpful content. Use sales content sparingly to avoid looking like spam.
- Regularly Update Accounts – It’s not enough to create social media accounts. You need to regularly update accounts to keep users engaged.
- Avoid Publishing the Same Posts on Multiple Platforms – Every social network comes with different audiences, posting techniques and functionalities. Customize posts for each platform individually.
- Aim for Valuable, Useful Posts – Don’t waste the time of your followers. Aim for valuable, useful posts each time you post on a social media site.
Etiquette Tips for Twitter
With 100 million users logging in each day, Twitter offers a huge audience for companies. Avoid mistakes with the following etiquette tips.
- Use only one or two hashtags in a post. A Salesforce report showed that businesses enjoy better engagement with only one or two hashtags. Too many of them make posts difficult to read, so use them sparingly.
- Avoid keyword stuffing. While you want to take important keywords social for SEO results, make your tweets sound personal instead of like a SEO-bot wrote them. Keywords are great, but choose one or two for each tweet.
- Try to use less than 140 characters. Yes, you want to stuff in as much info as possible, but leave room so others can retweet your post.
Etiquette Tips for Pinterest
Pinterest has proven to be one of the fastest growing social media sites, even though it’s not as big as heavy hitters like Facebook and Twitter. The site offers great click-through results when used correctly, but a few tips should be followed for optimal results.
- Give credit by linking back to the original sources. You don’t want followers to think you’re taking credit for someone else’s content.
- Spread pins out throughout the day so you avoid flooding your followers feed.
- Avoid pinning low quality images. No one wants to see a blurry image on Pinterest.
Etiquette Tips for Facebook
Facebook is currently the largest social network, and most companies will want to include Facebook in their social media marketing campaign. Reach out to those 757 million daily users by keeping Facebook etiquette in mind.
- Posting 3-5 times a day is great, but spread out those posts for the best results.
- Respond to every comment on your Facebook business page, even the bad ones. This allows you to control your image, even when someone posts a complaint against your business.
- Never beg for likes and avoid liking your own Facebook posts.
While social media etiquette may seem complicated, learning important etiquette tips will ensure you reap the best results from your social media marketing campaign. Follow these tips as you begin using social platforms, and take the time to learn from other companies that are seeing excellent social media results.
What social media etiquette’s are you using now?
Definitely agree with 2 hashtags max per tweet. #More #than #that, #then #it #starts #to #look #craycray #ugly #and #nobody #will #want #to #click LOL
Great article Brian! I believe that thanking a participant by their first name (no link to their profile) is also a nice touch!
Thank you for reminding me of the 140 characters. I tend to get excited and wordy. Didn’t think about people passing my post along in other social channels!