insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 07 - September 2015 | Page 106

BUSINESS

THE DOS AND DONT'S OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media can be simple in some aspects, but managing a business page
can be difficult. Here are the top ten dos and don’ts to give you a helping hand.

THE DOs
1) Complete your profile
First impressions are key, so whether it’s Twitter,
Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn it is important
to make sure you have the following:
• A profile picture
• A cover photo
• A descriptive About Me section
• Company details, including a link to your site
• A username that is easily identifiable and links
to your brand
2) Follow the right people
Twitter is a good way to build relationships by
following the people and companies that are
related to your business. This can help boost
your follower numbers as well as increase
engagement on your profile. Followerwonk is a
useful tool to search for relevant profiles to follow.
3) Keep it short
Nobody likes reading an essay on social media.
Creating a short post that includes the relevant
information needed will allow your audience to
absorb it quickly, and will help make the post
more memorable. Also, shortening links by using
tools such as Bitly can make the post look tidier,
and can help save those much-needed characters
on Twitter!
4) Be visual
Having a visually engaging profile will help your
page become recognisable and memorable.
Make sure that your page represents your brand
by using brand colours and visual imagery that
is relevant to you. Posts with multimedia attract
the eye, so therefore receive more engagement
than posts without.

5) Post regularly
Posting regularly will show that the business is
consistent, and this will help keep your followers
updated as much as possible. With Twitter it’s
good to tweet more than once a day, however
Facebook and LinkedIn won’t need as
many. Experiment with different times of day and
how many posts you schedule and see what
works best for your company. Tools such
as Hootsuite and Buffer can be useful for
scheduling posts.

THE DON’Ts
1) #Don’t #use #too #many #hashtags
Using hashtags allows posts and tweets to be
categorised with similar content. However, using
too many will make your posts look spammy and
possibly even unreadable. Try to hashtag the
specific keywords in your posts.
2) Multiple profiles
Having multiple profiles causes a lot of
complication and makes life difficult for people
who are trying to search for you. If you have more
than one Twitter profile try to delete them all and
keep the one that is most active.
3) Poor gramma’r and CAPITAL LETTERS
Poor grammar and capital letters will make your
page look unprofessional and can give off the
wrong impression. For example, if a post says
'WATCH OUR VIDEO NOW!' this could come
across as angry to your followers. Even if you
only have 140 characters, it’s still important to
use the correct punctuation.

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4) Don’t ignore complaints
Nobody likes complaints, but instead of looking
a t it negatively try and think of it as an opportunity
to improve on the affected areas in the future. It
is crucial to respond to complaints as it shows
that you have acknowledged them and that you
are willing to face up to the issue. A complaint
unanswered could be worse for your company
than the complaint being posted in the first place.
5) Sales focus
Selling products is key in a business; however,
a personal element is needed. Having the best
of both worlds is vital as it will help to build
relationships without bombarding people with
prices.

Sleeping Giant Media
Sleeping Giant Media is a fast growing multiaward-winning, search and social marketing
agency based in Kent. Working with international
businesses, its core services centre around pay
per click (paid search), search engine
optimisation, and social media marketing.
“It's our job to make sure our client's customers
can find them online so that site traffic, and
therefore, sales are increased.”
www.sleepinggiantmedia.co.uk