Yes, more and more businesses and individuals are involved with social media every single day. Sometimes, they get it right and other times they are way off base.
As Fiona Severson writes for Business 2 Community: “With active users nearing 700 million on Facebook, exceeding 300 million on Google+, and hitting 200 million on Twitter at the start of 2013, there’s no denying that social media use is only trending in one direction. Social media marketing provides a direct link to followers of a brand and prospective customers, but is not inherently a business-transaction medium. Social networking sites still need to be used in the way their name implies: for interacting with others in order to build relationships and form communities.”
Here are some dos and don’ts from Severson:
DO
- “Create a presence by posting regular updates on what’s happening in your biz.”
- “Work consciously to build your brand’s personality in line with your company values, and then let it loose on the Internet.”
- “Share a variety of content: post pictures and videos, share interesting links, and find out what others have to say about them.”
- “Be a thought-leader in changes taking place in your field.”
- “Encourage others to interact with you by interacting with them first.”
DON’T
- “Be a show-off. Businesses need to mind how much they self-promote their own babies.”
- “Turn off readers by making extreme statements about where you stand personally on a topic – unless that’s your business model.”
- “Ignore people who take the time to interact with you.”
- “Be insensitive to the varying perspectives of visitors to your page. Explain your reasoning, cite your sources, and tailor your rhetoric to the individuals you interact with.”
- “Be repetitive.”
