Avoiding Social Media Faux Pas

My last post talked about how social media is a great way for you to increase brand awareness.  The more small businesses realize this, the more they will jump into the fray of social media marketing.  Inevitably when people start using social media they are going to make a few mistakes.  It is the natural progression of things when trying to assimilate to any new culture.  And be rest assured, social media circles do have their own culture.  Here are tips to help you avoid some rookie mistakes:

#1.  Be consistent in your message.  A couple of important things to remember before you start using social media is the fact that #1- what you do and say online is forever etched in the servers of time and #2 - it is easily found.  Because of these facts, it is important that you are consistent in your message.  Don’t try to put on different faces for different groups of people.  You cannot be the gentle, caring and benevolent giver of knowledge in one space and the raucous, in your face, every man for himself on MySpace.  Building trust is vital to your brand’s success.  Trust will come with a consistent message from you so be yourself and stick with it.  The real you and your brand may not appeal to everyone but that is okay.  To take a spin off of an old saying… your goal is to appeal to some of the people all of the time.

#2.  Separate business and pleasure.  Those pictures from your trip to Tiajuana, Mexico… might not be a great idea to post those to your MySpace page where your clients will find them.  And don’t think that they won’t look.  Employers, recruiters, potential clients, even your employees will Google you and run your name through social media sites to see what they can find.  If you are going to try and have both a personal and professional presence online it is important that your message and your brand image is consistent -that is that you are who you say you are in both worlds - or that those two worlds will never meet.  If you don’t want your business associates finding the pics of you and the policia in Tiajuana, make your MySpace page viewable to friends only or put them on Shutterfly or Flickr in a password protected album, etc.  Make sure that you take the necessary steps to protect your brand image.

#3.  Learn the culture.  When you first enter into a new social media environment, whether it be blogging or social networking sites, instead of barging in and making your presence known, lurk awhile.  Get a feel for the lay of the land and the way things work.  The best way to learn is to watch the leaders.  They shouldn’t be hard to find - they will have the most followers.  There is a set of rules and social norms in each of the social media communities.  Avoid making major faux pas by watching and learning how to traverse the culture before you start your own participation.  When something comes up that you are not sure how to handle, ask for help.  It is likely that you are not the first person to experience a sticky online situation.  Ask someone you know with more experience, a heavy hitter in the social network, a popular blogger, or even Ms. Biz Manners.

#4.  Be humble.  If you follow all of these tips and still make a social media blunder, be honest about it.  Stand up for all to see and say, “Oops, sorry about that ya’ll.”  When people see that you are open and honest about your mistakes it furthers trust.  Everybody makes mistakes and those that try to hide them are also more likely to be dishonest about other things as well.  If you are building brand awareness through social media, messages that you are sending about your brand should include that you are a trustworthy and reliable business.

Social media is a great way for you to increase brand awareness and establish a presence online.  Just make sure that your presence sends the right message about you and your business.

Reader Comments

emarketed says...May 7th, 2008

Nice Post!!!

website won’t succeed in today’s rapidly changing online marketing environment if it’s simply a static display of information….

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