Just read a great blog post with an overview of Do’s and Don’ts in the Social Media world.
The How To’s of Social Media
(Resource no longer available)
By Talia DeVault
Having just returned from a Bay Area Women in Film event on “Utilizing Social Media,” I felt compelled to share the knowledge of the creative professionals that spoke on the panel…
There’s a lot of great suggestions here and it gives a good overview of SoMe etiquette. I recommend reading it (resource no longer available).
I added a comment there and wanted to expand a bit here:
Excellent review! Thank you. I’d like to add a few do’s and don’ts:
DO automate your promotional and repetitive tweets (remember, the stream is moving so fast, that any message should be tweeted 2-3 times a day), AND be sure to personalize your connection with your friends/followers – respond, engage, be a resource. That CAN’T be automated and must be real and must be your voice.
DON’T be the same across the medium – DON’T automatically push your tweets to facebook to linkedin, etc. Different mediums require a different kind of interaction. I think of it this way:
Linkedin is the business networking event
Twitter is the cocktail party
Facebook is dinner with friends.
You wouldn’t wear the same out fit or have the same demeanor at the networking event as you would either at the cocktail party or dinner with friends. What works and doesn’t work in real life works and doesn’t work on social media.
In addition, think of blogging and your email newsletter as an opportunity to build value and familiarity with your fans and clients – and both need to be different from each other as well. I don’t know about you, but I hate getting the exact same message from 5 different places – I’m likely to unfollow and unsubscribe so I only get the information once. Blogging is like an ongoing conversation. It doesn’t need to be long or drawn out, because you’ll be back again soon.
Your newsletter needs to be a bit more formal, very value driven as well as bringing your list deeper into relationship with you.
And the concept that underpins all of it, is that people buy from those they know, like and trust. Your goal in Social Media should be to establish yourself as an expert, and allow your fans, followers, friends and customers/clients to get to know you, like you and trust you.
