Can you imagine your life, utterly devoid of social media?
If you are a millennial or Gen Z, the chances are that you can’t. After all, with the rise of platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, the masses have found a new way to connect.
Social media isn’t just famous for personal use. Instead, owing to its broad reach, many businesses are creating strategies solely for their social media presence. After all, it is a great and cost-effective way to speak to your target audience.
What do the numbers say?
Let’s put it all to perspective using a few numbers. According to HootSuite, there are approximately 8 billion people in the world. And out of them, 4.5 billion people are online, while 3.7 billion are active on social media.
As per the Digital Information World, an average user spends 142 minutes daily on social media platforms! And every user has at least seven accounts. This proves one thing for sure- a significant chunk of consumers are online.
Regardless of which business you are in, you will find your target audience online. You can’t let go of the opportunity to speak to them via social media.
However, you must do so appropriately. It is essential to follow social media etiquettes when reaching consumers through the platform.
The Do’s of Social Media
Here are some things you must do on social media.
1. Be grammatically correct
Users might not run their statuses and posts past grammatical checks whenever they post online. However, this doesn’t mean that you can also be as care-free as them. Remember, you are a brand, and your social media account is just one of the many ways to get your brand message across.
Make sure you come off as sophisticated and authentic. The first step to ensuring this is using proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Even when you are replying to comments, don’t overuse caps lock or disregard the rules of grammar.
You need to look professional online. So, read every marketing communication you send across carefully. This includes both posts and comments.
2. Use the Story Feature
Now, a wide variety of social media platforms have the Story feature in them. This includes Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.
Many brands tend to stay away from the function, dubbing it to be a tad too unprofessional.
This is a misconception. Stories tend to be highly engaging. There is much more chance of people viewing your five-second story than reading a post to the tee. So, make sure to use this feature to your advantage.
What can you post in your story? You can share news about discounts or recent collections. You can also use the feature creatively. For instance, a leather jacket online store can post stories about how the different jackets are made or how to carry the leather jackets stylishly.
Put your creative brain to work and come up with the perfect content to share via Stories.
3. Be Consistent
One of the first things taught in brand management classes is the need to have a consistent brand image. Your communications are the stepping stone to creating this consistency.
Generally, people tend to think that consistency only comes through the tone of voice and the content. However, in the world of social media, it also comes in the form of the frequency of posting.
The more inconsistent and infrequent you are with your social media posts, the more you will lose out on your target audience.
According to a study conducted by Facebook, brands tend to lose connection with their target audience if they post merely once a week or more than three times a day. Remember, you can’t spam your customers, nor can you let them forget you.
You need to find a balance between the two. Post original and witty content three days a week and at most twice a day.
The Don’ts of Social Media
Here are three things you must avoid doing on social media at all costs!
1. Be a spammer
There is nothing worse than annoying your target audience. And there is nothing easier to do than annoying them!
In an attempt to sound friendly, don’t spam your audience. It is never a good idea to continually post, retweet, comment, and like. If you do so, you will watch as your engagement rates drop significantly. People will start unfollowing you. After all, no one wants a brand to be the only thing they see on their social media accounts!
2. Complain about negative customer experiences
Just like there are bad brands that garner a lot of negative reviews online, there can also be bad customers. However, in this case, a brand cannot go online and share their negative experience with the said customer.
One of the essential social media etiquettes for business owners is the need to take the high road when things don’t go to plan. Whenever a customer interaction turns sour or a transaction does not follow through, never bad mouth your customers online.
Don’t even post sarcastic comments about them. This is because potential customers might look at your interactions with your audience and form a negative opinion about you.
You don’t want to sound like a bully or a whiner online!
Hashtags are a great solution. They allow users to view content about a given topic all at once. As a business owner, it lets you categorize your content and link it to a more important topic.
But, there is a thing such as overdoing hashtags. Some brands are even guilty of it! Some people tend to convert every word of their post into a hashtag. Others make the entire sentence into one prominent, incoherent, hashtag!
Both of these approaches tend to look very unprofessional and highly annoying. It also means that the tags don’t perform a function, unlike the initial purpose of the concept!
Partying thoughts
Social media is a powerful tool if you use it the right way. Where can you address such a massive chunk of your target group, all at once?
Be careful about social media etiquette and watch as your online presence, and hence your business revenue increases.
