Social media is all about your customers. It is not an advertising platform. It is not a soapbox. It is not a complaints forum.
If you want to look after your image as you make friends, it may be a good idea to mind your social media manners. Here are 21 things you do not want to do on your platforms.
- Don’t miss a day – one of the secrets of social media success is consistency.
- Don’t complain – life is hard enough without adding to your followers’ troubles.
- Don’t engage in small talk – small talk is for texts and private messages.
- Don’t be mean – nobody worth knowing wants to be associated with negative behaviour.
- Don’t be arrogant – you’re trying to make people like you, not show them how clever you are.
- Don’t act like a know-it-all – even if you do, or an expert – even if you are.
- Don’t be fickle – don’t follow people and then when they follow you, unfollow them – this is shallow and rude.
- Don’t oversell – social media is about adding value, not self-promotion’
- Don’t overshare personal schedules – boring your followers with the painstaking minutiae of your company’s or your daily life is a bad idea.
- Don’t lecture – people don’t like people who tell them what to do.
- Don’t talk about yourself – rather share content from your blog, share interesting articles, share quotes that relate to your brand.
- Don’t ignore people who complain – either deal with them in a public or private message.
- Don’t overuse hashtags – #there #is #nothing #more #annoying #than #this.
- Don’t ignore your spelling and grammar – posting on social media is a new type of publishing.
- Don’t post too frequently – once you know how many posts your followers enjoy, don’t abuse them with spam.
- Don’t react to trolls, no matter how much you want to – restrict their posting abilities on your platform.
- Don’t tag people in unflattering photographs – you are not trying to make enemies.
- Don’t forget to be polite – saying please and thank you means more than you realise.
- Don’t post compromising content – omit anything that you don’t want your boss, your spouse, your children, your clients or your potential bosses and clients to read.
- Don’t post when you shouldn’t – when you’re tired, intoxicated, angry, or emotional.
- Don’t be boring. Make people smile.
If you want to find out more about social media, join us for The Social Brand, our social media workshop.