Social media etiquette has been evolving for many years. This is an essential part of representing a company as its branded social media account. Business social media etiquette is a sign that time and audience attention is valuable for businesses. Social media etiquette or manners are so important that they can make or break a brand. To maintain these etiquettes, many businesses are taking the help of professional companies offering social media optimization services. Knowledge of social media etiquette can help businesses in avoiding embarrassing mistakes that generate negative attention.
Best practices of social media etiquette: social media optimization services
Though the rules of social media keep on evolving, there are some basic rules that businesses must follow. Here are some of the key social media etiquette tips:
- Find out the meaning of a hashtag before posting it: Hashtags are one of the most effective ways to promote content by making it easier to search for on social media networks. Using a wrong or irrelevant hashtag can create a negative impression of a brand. Even if a hashtag is in trend and bringing in huge traffic, make sure to understand what exactly it is about and how it is relevant to your brand.
- Don’t try to engage with a social media user if he/she responds with a “Silence, Brand” meme: If you contact a person on social media and he responds with a “Silence, Brand” meme, or a line that has the same meaning, just disengage with that person and move on. The meme is a sign that the person is not interested in talking to you and businesses must respect that.
- Only use @ to create positive brand experiences: @ or ‘at’ is a sign used on most social media networks to tag an individual user. When tagging a user, a notification automatically goes to that person. Businesses should only use this symbol to create positive brand experiences. Since all your followers are watching any given interaction, use @ very carefully. You can always use @ for a user to express thanks or to draw the attention of your audience to something positive done by the user.
- Don’t send direct messages to the users unless invited: If a user is following your brand, it doesn’t mean that they are open to receiving direct messages. Don’t ever rely on getting people to respond to your direct promotional messages. To attract attention from a particular user, you can tag them with @ instead. If you are wondering when to use direct messages, then you should only use direct messages when an individual initiates or consents. For instance, direct messages can be sent at the time of offering customer service.
- Avoid getting into an argument in public: Businesses must always avoid arguing in public with social media users. Try to resolve all the customer service-related topics via direct messages quickly to prevent any personal information from getting revealed by accident. In case you are not able to handle a customer issue due to their aggressive behavior, you can pass on the matter to your company’s outreach team as they have additional options for offering the user an incentive to change their behavior.
- Be careful of highly sensitive subjects: It is important to be very careful while handling any type of controversy or sensitive topic. When dealing with such subjects, make sure that your social media is lined up with your corporate social responsibility plan and brand values. Also, don’t get involved with any kind of disputes that can have a negative impact on your brand image. Just remember that it is not necessary to respond to every message even if your account gets an @ from anyone.
- Give importance to quality over quantity: Some tactics like hashtags and consistent posting are an important part of businesses growing on social media. Businesses must make it a point to maintain a balance between all their social media tactics. You must never compromise on the value of each piece of content you put on your social media account.
- Provide a link to a real and professional website: Whenever you provide a link for the web address, make sure you link to a real and professional website. Many new businesses often create social media pages and link to a non-existent web address where they need to provide their company’s official website URL. This is considered a breach of social media etiquette. Besides, it creates a non-professional impression of your company. In case you don’t have a brand website yet or it’s under process, you must simply leave that field empty.
- Monitor your brand mentions: Businesses must monitor their brand mentions so that they can respond proactively. Mentions can come in any form a hashtag, an in-text mention, or an @ mention. Any type of mention can be considered as consent for you to respond even if a person is complaining about your brand or making a general observation. Your social media technology stack must-have tools to monitor mentions for you and alert you immediately about any new mention.
- Be careful about your behavior: An important social media etiquette is to be polite and respectful all the time. It means that no matter what the situation is, your brand must always remain polite and respectful. Your followers usually see your brand as a character and the way you behave can make or break the relationship between you and your followers.
Conclusion: social media optimization services
If you are looking for a fast and cost-effective way to optimize your social media account keeping in mind all the social media etiquette, then you can hire the services of a professional company offering social media optimization services.
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