Is your Social Media Trustworthy?

We assume that if you’re reading this article, that you have or may be starting a small business. Also, since you are reading this from a link from either Facebook or Twitter, you are on social media.

Is your Social Media up to snuff?

If you are trying to start a serious business and I mean this literally, as in you’re not a comedian or opening a fun kids space, etc. Then your social media must reflect that feeling. A feeling of seriousness, legitimacy and trust.

The Signs of Bad Social Media

• Unprofessional photos of you – We’re talking the photos that go into your profile and show up in the little circle of FB, Twitter and others. We’re not talking quality here, but the better the image, the better. We mean shots of you drinking (unless you own a bar), shots of you with your kids (unless you work with kids) and so on.
• Posting far too often – Yes, some platforms like Twitter, are okay with perpetual posting, but many… Facebook, frown on too many posts in any particular day. Quality over quantity is the key here.
• Too much self-promotion – One of the most accepted promotion systems is as follows: For every 10 posts, 8 should be informational/helpful to your followers and 2 should be promoting your business. It’s the 80/20 rule, 80% of your posts should be helpful and 20% should be promotional.
• No engagement – If someone comments on your post, respond. Everyone liked engagement from your followers to Facebooks algorithms to Googles algorithms. When responding, be nice…even to the ones who tick you off.
• Duplicating posts – Try to not duplicate posts for all of your platforms. Try to add a human touch to them so it doesn’t seem like a robot is posting them.
• Personal info on your business page/group – This is meant to be a business, treat it as such. Do not post that your GF is a “witch”, don’t post political commentary… unless it is directly related to business or your business. As an example, the president in power at the time has made tax cuts that clearly did benefit you or hurt you.
• Photos – Again, no personal photos of you at the bar, partying, with the kids on Santa’s lap and so on. Keep these things on your personal page for your friends. Also, you may want to remove possible damaging items from your personal page as well since some people may look at your personal page as well.
• Hash tags – Don’t over use them. Even though some platforms like Instagram have no real limit on them, using too many random ones looks spammy and unprofessional. Here is a great article from Hootsuite on Hash Tag usage.

So, do you have any thoughts, opinions about bad social media? Let us know in the comments.

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