Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

Social media has become a staple in many people’s lives, whether it be for business or for your own personal enjoyment. When it comes to the business side of social media, there are some things you should and should not do. 

Here are my thoughts on some pivotal do’s and don’ts when it comes to running a business account. 

Do – Create meaningful content

You should be posting because you have something valuable to offer your audience. You should not be posting “just because”, 7 days a week. This rule also applies to over-posting in one day because your audience may view that negatively as you are “spamming” their feed with too much worthless information. When you have less content that is more thought-provoking, it comes across as genuine. If your content is not genuine, users will pick up on it very quickly and it could lower your engagement numbers.

If you’re at a loss for ideas that are thought-provoking, meaningful content that will resonate with users of your chosen social media platform, you have a few options. You could post topics like company culture updates/features, internal news about your business, news coverage related to your messaging, thought leadership and commentary on industry news.

Don’t – Go silent

Even though you don’t have to post every day, you should have several posts a month. When your account looks inactive, it weakens user engagement with your business and may have people wondering why you disappeared.

Do – Interact with accounts outside of yours  

ENGAGE WITH OTHERS! This is a great way to get your business’s name exposed to new people. One great example of a business with great  engagement is Stripe. They are engaging with users who are having problems with the product or just asking questions multiple times a day. When people see your company’s name, there is a chance they’ll click on your profile and explore, which could lead to a future follower or, even better, a future customer.

Don’t – Leave comments unattended

Stakeholders enjoy getting responses from businesses. It shows you’re listening and staying on top of your account. Although not all comments are going to be positive, make sure to respond to the negative ones as well (always in a professional manner).

Do – Check analytics for meaningful insights

Analytics are everything! This is how you will determine the success of your posts/campaigns. It’s best to check them weekly or monthly to understand how your posts have been performing and try new strategies to better optimize views and engagement.

To make it easier for you and your team, invest in a social media planning platform that offers analytics services. Some of these platforms do all of the math for you so there’s no need to get out your calculator or go back into old posts to see how they performed. If you aren’t interested in investing in a planning platform, Google has all of the data you need to find out how well your accounts are doing.

Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook offer you valuable insights as well. These platforms will provide you with basic insights so you can get a sound understanding of how your business is performing.

Don’t – Forget the small details

There are small things you can do to reach a larger audience. Every platform is very different however, here are some things to think about for your next post: 

Add hashtags! Before adding hashtags to a post, research which ones your competitors are using and those that are most popular with your audience(s). Be careful with the amount you add because each platform favors a different number of hashtags if any at all. 

Tag people only when necessary. This will make you visible to a larger audience but be sure to only tag people when it’s necessary, or you will be seen as a spam account. 

Be careful with your captions. Social media posts shouldn’t have lengthy captions (unless you’re on LinkedIn, Reddit, or similar platforms). You need to think of an easy caption that gets your point across, then add your call to action (ex. “‘click the link in our bio to learn more”) or tag someone you think would enjoy the post. 

Best of luck to all fellow digital marketers. You got this!

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