Minding your social media p's and q's

Social media is amazing for small business owners, as well as community organizers, impassioned activists, and even your run-of-the-mill chatty charlie. Unfortunately, it can do as much harm as good, and it doesn’t take much mishandling of your twitter account and facebook fan page to drive potential customers away with a negative opinion of your work (and, unfortunately, of you). So let’s go over a few reminders, okay?

1. Don’t become overly familiar with your customers – that’s what your personal accounts are for! Remember that when you post, tweet, or blog from your company name, you’re giving people a look into the business – and if what they see is highly personal, they may be concerned that you won’t take their privacy seriously.

Good?   “Took customers out to dinner last night at Chez Foofy. Amazing time with fantastic people!”
Not so good? “Took @customerone and @customertwo to Chez Foofy…got sooooo drunk we took our panties off”

2. Be very careful with any criticism you put out there. Even if it’s justified, when people read your criticisms of other clients or businesses, they may be hesitant to engage with you for fear that they’ll be next. If you must criticize, keep it general and minimal.

Good? “Was disappointed to find out @nonprofit only gives 10% of funds to charity…any other suggestions?”
Bad? “@organization is hiding their funding sources and lies about how much they give away! They suck!”

3. Look for a balance – don’t always post personal stuff to your business account, and vice versa. Readers want to know a little bit about you – they want to be able to visualize the person behind the account; but remember that the focus should carry a thread of the business through it.

Good? “Hitting the coffee hard this morning – I have so many awesome orders to process today, and I need the caffeine!”
Good? “Y’all gotta picture this…@CEO just came in wearing a clown suit! He’s off to his kid’s school fair today.”
Bad? “We have lots of orders today.”
Bad? “CEO is out of the office”

4. Do not feel the need to respond to every follower or friend alert – especially with pre-formatted responses. It leaves many savvy customers feeling like they’ll be spammed at the first opportunity. Instead, periodically leave a genuine comment for them; they’ll feel appreciated and will develop a greater rapport with you (and will recommend you and utilize your business more often).

Good? “@follower – wow, I loved your blog post about your new project. It sounds really amazing!”
Bad? “Thanks for following me!”

5. Build your community. Utilize blog posts, status updates, and tweets from others through forwarding, linking, and retweeting; people like to be followed & read, and they love to know who else out there is worth checking out.

Good? “Forwarding http://xxx.xxx – great information on social media in the health industry!”
Bad? “I read this post with amazing info on social media in the health industry. I”ll write more about it later.”

Social media doesn’t need to be as daunting as some of us make it … the key is to be mindful of what you put out there, and make sure that it reflects your brand and your values!