5 tips for good Social Media Etiquette.

As a Social Media Manager, I see it all! From funny meme’s, clever advertising, shameless selfies and the list goes on… however, from a business perspective, one thing I sometimes miss is good etiquette and as a business owner I know that online relationships are just as important as face to face behaviour, especially with social media communication fast evolving.

So here are my 5 points that your brand should follow to conduct good social media etiquette.

1. Differentiate business to personal.

I always advise my clients to let their followers know who is behind the brand and to adopt a ‘human-to-human’ style marketing however it is important that you always remain professional!

For example, taking a photo of you drinking a beer is very different to a photo of you drinking a coffee with your laptop. It is about representing your business in a humanized way.

Avoid getting involved with debates, Politics and controversial topics (unless your business is in law of course) as this could come across offensive to potential clients and customers.

Do not post when you’re tired, emotional, hungry or intoxicated and ensure that all posts are composed well with no typo’s. No one cares that you’re so busy and tired, people want to read positive posts and your readers certainly don’t want to see that your phone lines are down. This does not put your business in good light.

2. Give credit where it’s due.

One thing that really bugs me on Social Media is when businesses are using other people’s content without giving credit. Indicating the author of content is not just good manners; it will also help with your engagement and may result in them following you.

With visual marketing on the rise it challenges us as Marketeers to use good quality images and most often we are using third party sources to keep our Social media feed up to date and interactive. By tagging the source, it will help improve the rankings.

When should you tag someone?

• To include someone who was at the event with you.

• Alert someone you are talking about.

• Increase the reach of your social media marketing by encouraging others to like & share.

So get tagging and avoid ‘talking behind their back!’

Connect your content with a person and increase your followers.

Be vigilant of over tagging though and ‘tag with care’ to prevent become annoying or spammy!

3. Support local business.

We all have that one person on Social media who loves to over-share which can become very irritating to us as one person’s humour is very different to another person’s humour. As a business, it is fine to share content; however it is better if it is content from a local level.

By sharing local news, it will position your brand in good light and show that you support local economy and businesses around you.

4. Leave reviews.

If you have purchased an item from a local independent business, help support them by leaving a glowing review and share it across your social media. Did you know that 92% of us trust an online influencer more so than the brand. (Via Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahweinswig/2016/10/05/influencers-are-the-new-brands/)

5. Avoid automated messaging.

We often follow an account and then receive a private message along the lines of "Thanks for the follow, now check out my website", but how many of us actually follow this call to action? If you're anything like us, you will regard this message as spam and that is not good representation for any brand.

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The social media world moves far faster than the offline world, so it’s critical to think about the effects of your words, photos or videos before sharing them with your audience. For advice on your Social Media Marketing, please email hi@gemmediamk.com