Social Media Rules for Business Owners

by Josh Mangum of Townsquare Interactive Every day it seems I have to de-friend a business page on Facebook. Twitter is so much worse. The reason is that business owners break a lot of the rules of social media so as an aid here are a few guidelines to increase your fan base and retention of likes: Rule #1 Be tactful. DO NOT TRY TO SELL on social media sites. With the obvious exception of restaurants nobody wants to hear about your specials all day. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this question: When was the last time a new customer came in because of a Facebook post? In fact what you will find is that in most cases these are returning loyal customers and you are cannibalizing your own sales. Rule #2 Be Interesting A generic post every week about the safety features of a certain product is not interesting. In fact I suggest to business owners that about half of their posts should not be directly related to their own business. Shares and likes come from interesting pictures, videos, and by asking real questions. Next time you want to post something try creating a poll instead, make it silly (stay professional) you will be surprised at how well it is received. Another tip, if you are a business with interesting pictures to share everyday stop posting them to Facebook and join the Pinterest bandwagon. Rule #3 Be brief STOP POSTING 10 TIMES A DAY!! This is one of the most cited reasons people un-like a business. One post a day is almost too much for a local businesses. Try to focus on one social media site a day as far as posts/updates go. Remember it’s not all about the posts. Go and view your fans’ pages or twitter feeds, and like some photos or retweet some of their interesting posts. People appreciate the human side of social media and you will develop much more brand loyalty when people feel you are actually engaged and not just marketing to them. Rule #4 Be Real Golden Rule, do no harm, say it however you want just do it. People are smarter than you think and they are constantly dodging falsehoods online. Don’t add your company to the list or you will find yourself with less fans than yesterday. Rule #5 Be efficient You have a business to run, employees to pay, schedules to make, orders to fill, bills to pay etc. If you don’t have time to run your social media pages then don’t. Instead, outsource the management of your pages. If you have an employee, possibly one that watches the front desk, and they have spare time during the day ask them to help you with the pages. Create the pages yourself or with them and then ad them as an administrator, that way if they ever leave you won’t lose your social media pages. But before you do make sure they read rules 1-4!!! www.mangumseo.com www.mangumseo.com/social_media