The Do's and Don'ts for Small Businesses on Social Media

All businesses want to grow their social media presence, but there are a few tips to make sure you do it right. These techniques are extra helpful for small businesses that won’t have all the rules and regulations set out for them pre-tweet.

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So here, let us help you make sure you never make some of these fatal mistakes whilst you’re on the web:

1.       DON’T mix pleasure with business

We think there’s nothing more important than being able to sign out after a long day of work and not get sucked back in. This is so easy to do, you just have to keep your personal account separate from a work account and don’t ever let the two merge.  

Imagine if you accidently sent your customers pictures of your dinner and your girlfriend infographics of the marketing trends for 2015. So much could go wrong.

Keep a personal account and set up a whole new account to manage your pages. Keep everything professional on that account and only sign in during your working hours.

If you’re worried about people contacting you, leave an emergency number, or put opening hours on your page so they know when to expect a reply.

2.       DO use the scheduling tools

To help you post and enjoy family time all in one go, there are tonnes of scheduling tools out there. Sendible is our favourite. You can sign out the minute you leave the office and it will continue to send off posts and tweets automatically, well into the night.

These are particularly helpful if you’re going away and you want to keep your social media pages interactive for a couple of days.

3.       DO research before you post

Make sure your content is current. There’s no point posting news about the housing market that’s 3 years old.

Equally, make sure you don’t post something negative. If your business is in double glazing, don’t upload articles about alternatives to double glazing.  

4.       DON’T share your competitors products

Sometimes we find a fab article or an infographic. It says just what we want it to say, but then we realise… we look closer at the website and it’s covered in someone else’s logo. Or worse, within the article, they keep mentioning somebody else’s product. As great as this content was, it’s now utterly useless.

Don’t post this to your page, or you’re just sending customers away. Instead, use this new information for yourself and try to find a similar article/image without the advertising.  

5.       DO shake things up

I know you might think a cat reading the morning paper is a bit silly, but everyone loves cats.

Don’t be afraid to try posting new things.

It’s not always possible to make posts and tweets that are 100% relatable to your business, so branch out and see what your audience like.

Pictures and videos are very popular, but don’t forget to just try to communicate with your followers: ask questions, find out what they want to see. These things all help get a conversation going and soon enough, your interactions will be sky high!

Follow these simple steps and you should be safe. We know a lot of it is common sense, but it’s easy to get swept up into the Twitter-sphere and lose a bit of perspective.  

So remember to stay vigilant, remain politically correct and you can easily avoid those accidental racist retweets (we’re looking at you, New England Patriots).  

Author: Megan Herdson is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

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