6 Simple Social Media Best Practices
One of the nice things about social media is that because so many people and brands are using it, the rest of us can glean successful tips and surefire tactics from the masses to make our own experiences and implementation strategies that much better. This list of best practices isn’t comprehensive, but it does build a launch point of basics that are easy to follow and simple to use.
1. Crowdsourcing
Use your social media presence to reach out to customers, users and clients to ask them what they like most or least about your brand, product or service. It’s an excellent way to learn how to improve a feature or scale back a push. Let’s face it, perception is reality and knowing what your audience wants is just about as close to the truth as you can get.
2. Overcome Your Fears
For most brands and businesses, one of the most frightening aspects of social media is that they have to give up control. This means that by making themselves available through social media they’re subject to kind comments and scathing criticism. There’s no denying the fact that your brand is at the mercy of your audience. Set your sensitivity aside, check your ego at the door and make an attempt to understand and learn from any negative feedback that you might encounter.
3. Give Prompt Responses
One thing we know for certain is that social media moves very quickly. Being able to send out a thank you, reply to a question or provide details in a blog comment all need to be attended to as they happen. Make a concerted effort to converse with your fans and followers as soon as possible. If you’re finding that your time is limited, consider delegating and expanding social media responsibility in a team format. A social media team is great for keeping the social media momentum going and it’s helpful in getting a fresh perspective to a new situation.
4. Be True To You
It’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement of social media success. But as thrilling as it might be to build a following of thousands, don’t lose sight of what your brand stands for or what your business is about. Authentic relationships are built on a foundation of genuineness. Keep it real when it comes to interacting with your audience and don’t lose sight of why you began your social media campaign to begin with. People are perceptive and they can smell insincerity from a mile away.
5. Keep A Consistent Identity
Format your brand name and stick with it. Take the name MindSprout for example. It’s used across all of our social media sites as MindSprout so that it’s easily identified and found. I haven’t used variations like msprout on some sites or mindspt55 on others, which can potentially cause confusion and even dilute the brand. Use a service like Knowem.com to stake your brand name claim on all the social media sites that you’ll have a presence on. Additionally, use the same avatar, logo or imagery to create brand cohesiveness across your social platforms.
6. Track Metrics
This is by far one of the most important best practices to follow. Keep track of your social media efforts and measure how successful each one has been. If you’re not seeing the results that you want it’s time to rethink your strategy. A new approach is much better than continuing down a path to nowhere. Use your analytics, link shorteners and sentiment trackers to monitor and learn about what’s working and what’s not.
There are plenty of other best practices that can be used, but hopefully this will give you a good starting point. Just remember to be patient, don't lose focus and choose your social media channels carefully.
