When it comes to social media, there are a few ‘givens’ that it’s just good etiquette to do. None are particularly troublesome or time consuming and they make you more of an attractive proposition to be connected with on social media. Try to emphasise the ‘human side’ of social media. Currently, there is a drive for marketing automation, making social media a hands off process. This pollutes social media platforms with poor content and results in one robot talking to another. Social media marketing (for that matter, marketing in general) should be about relationships, not pitting one programme against another to see which can do it quickest and easiest. Don’t forget, it’s real people that you are trying to talk to:
- Always mention your source – When you share content from someone else, be sure to mention them (if they have an active social media account). Not only is it polite, it will gain you extra exposure, should they retweet, favourite, like, share etc you.
E.g: Number of women in engineering grows – LINK. Via @WomensWeekly
- Reply to “thanks for following us” posts (If they are human) – Often, when you follow someone or like their page, you’ll receive a direct message or post on your wall saying thank you. Often, these are automated messaged, like this:
However, sometimes these messages are genuine and someone has taken the time to specifically thank you for following them. See an example here: 
If they are genuine, it’s always good to say acknowledge them. Whilst you can never be sure what is automated and what isn’t, you tend to get a feel for it after awhile.
- Don’t react on impulse – Sometimes, it’s hard to convey a message properly with limited characters or just via text, the point gets misconstrued. Therefore, take time to analyse a message or post and give a measured response.
- Don’t spam – Quality over quantity. Cliché yet so true. Rather send 1 or 2 good posts that people will read than 10 that aren’t relevant. People will become disinterested in your account should you post drivel all the time.
- Don’t abbreviate too much – Sure, in order to meet a tweets 140 character limit, you’ll need to cut a few words or create an acronym or two. However, too much and your message will become difficult to understand. This goes for Facebook. Whilst there is a larger character limit, abbreviating too much can mean the post loses it’s message.
BSA make sure your social media is real and engaging. If you would like to talk to us about enhancing your social media, please get in touch.
