The Unwritten Rules of Social Media #4 - How to increase your followers

So far in this series, we have discussed profiles, how to write updates and why you shouldn't sell via social media.

Now, we turn our thoughts to Unwritten Rule #4 - How to increase your followers.

But before we think about attracting people to your Twitter, Facebook and other pages, you need to think about what they will find when they get there.

Just like a website, they need to find something of interest to attract them to you, browse a while and then decide to follow you.

Be prepared! So, fill in your bio/profile. Add a photo. Post regular comments. Your profile description is the only place that you can tell the world who you are and what you are about. So make the most of it.

Publicise your pages
People won't look for you unless you tell them where you are. Add your twitter address or facebook page to your website, your email signature and your business cards.


Link up your on-line presence
Make sure your followers on one social media site, such as Bebo know where to find you on Facebook and Digg. Ensure you tell your LinkedIn followers who you are on Twitter and where to read your latest Blog .


Retweeting and Forwarding
Just as emails get forwarded, so can tweets and facebook posts. Encourage your followers to forward what you say. This gets your messages to a whole new set of followers, causing a ripple effect across the internet. On Twitter, set and follow trends by using the #hash tag


Talk about your interests outside of work
We all love having a common interest with someone. So finding out that you are a fan of baseball, a passionate cake maker or a supporter of a particular charity will help those with similar interests to follow you and forward your posts to their contacts.


So to summarise:
Be prepared, so people know who you are and what you are about. Publicise your social media addresses on-line and in your other marketing so people know how to find you. Encourage your followers to find you other followers by forwarding and retweeting your posts and find common interests by talking about your passions.


Next time: Unwritten Rules of Social Media #5 - Top tips to make it work for you

The Unwritten Rules of Social Media - part 3

So, the unwritten rules we have looked at so far are #1 Use the right profile picture, #2 How to write updates. We now turn to the biggest rule for businesses:

Unwritten Rule #3 - Don't Sell

Now you are probably wondering why unwritten rule #3 is don't sell. After all, companies use social media to generate more business.

The reason is this: social media is a two-way tool. It exists for people to communicate with each other - so we need to use it for conversations rather than advertisements.

Think of it this way: would you go into a room full of people you have never met before and just give a sales pitch to every person you meet? No, you wouldn't. And so it is the same with social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, LinkedIn and Twitter. We go there to meet new contacts, to cultivate relationships and when the time is right, ask for the sale.

Unwritten rules part #2 discussed how to write updates and in it, I said that if you are using it for business then 80% of your posts should be business-related. By this, they should be talking about business issues, or give examples of what you are doing.

For example, which would you prefer to read?

(a) "Contact us for social media training, PR and copywriting services. http://bit.ly/7Q8vSt"
or
(b) "Just adding in new examples to next week's social media course. Really looking forward to it. http://bit.ly/dr00MC"

Option (a) is a pure advert. However, people still buy from people, even when they meet on-line through social networking sites.

Just promoting your goods and services is a form of spamming and is the easiest and fastest way to stop people following you.

(b) on the otherhand gives an insight into the person writing the post, what they are doing and whether they enjoy it. It gives us a glimpse of their personality and whether you might get on. By mentioning the course and a link to it gives readers the option to find out more if they read the post thinking, 'I wonder what the examples are... and would that course be of benefit to me?'.

So to summarise:
Don't sell, think conversation. Selling on social networking sites is a form of spam and should be avoided. However, mentioning what you are doing, with links to find out additional information is ultimately more effective.

Next time: Unwritten Rule # 4: How to Increase Your Followers

The Unwritten Rules of Social Media - part 2

Last time, we learned that the first unwritten rule is about using the right profile picture. Here's number 2:

Unwritten Rule # 2 - How to write updates
Social media is all about communicating and how you write your updates will really depend why you are using the site in the first place.

For personal use
If you are using Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace etc to keep in touch with family and friends, then pretty much anything goes.

However, do keep in mind that more and more employers are using social media sites to check out prospective employees, so do be careful and try to avoid bad language or compromising photos!

For business
If you are using social media as a business tool, keep at least 80% of your posts about business issues.

Don't overtly sell (there will be more on this in part #3).

It is OK to mention some personal stuff so people get to know you, and your likes/dislikes,. However it is not a good idea to mention lurid details of parties, drunkenness and the like if you want to be known as a serious professional!

Likewise, keep your language clean (i.e don't swear).

Post updates regularly and often so your following get to know and expect to see items from you. It just isn't effective to update 100 things one day and then not touch sites for 6 months...

Leave suitable periods of time between updates and understand that followers on different sites will expect a different frequency of updates. Users on LinkedIn for example tend to expect up to 1 update a day. Twitter followers expect several a day although I always recommend to leave at least an hour between tweets, unless you are engaging in a conversation with someone.

Try not to abbreviate. You will lose followers if you use them too often and people outside your company/industry don't know what they mean.

Add links to things you mention and ALWAYS check links (to make sure they work and to check they are not spam) before forwarding posts.

When re-posting a quote or retweeting on Twitter, give credit to the person who tweeted the information first.

Next time: Unwritten Rule # 3 - Don't sell

How to find inspiration for your blog

Blogs are a great way to tell the world your news as well as sharing your thoughts and knowledge. They are a great way of attracting interest in what you do as well as demonstrating how well you do it.

So how do you know what to blog about?

You could just write about what you feel like, whenever inspiration strikes.

That's all very well, but it can look rather disjointed and will discourage people from actively following you if they can't see regular postings that will interest them.

The best way attract more business through your blog is to have a semi-structured plan of what you are going to talk about and why.

For example, if you are blogging to become known as the expert in home gardening and sell garden designs to homeowners, give tips and advice on what to plant, how to prune and top tips when planning a garden.

On the other hand, a blog aiming to attract more clients aged 25-40 to a clothing store would discuss fashion trends and how to put together the outfits worn by famous people who are the same age as its target market.

Top Tips!

Decide WHY you are blogging and WHO you are aiming them at. Imagine sitting down for a coffee with one of the people you'd like to read your blog. Then, think of all the topics of conversation you could have with them if you have never met them before, but want to demonstrate who you are and what you do.

Be yourself. People buy from people, even on the internet. Develop your own style of writing, be friendly and don't be afraid to give away advice. After all, if people gain a benefit, they will keep coming back.

Ideas are like buses; they will all come at once... so keep an ideas notebook and write your ideas down, so you never run out of things to write about.

If you are in the mood for writing, create several blog posts in one go, then schedule them to be posted at regular intervals. This is also a good tip before going on annual leave or if you know your schedule is busy over the coming days and weeks.

The Unwritten Rules of Social Media - part 1

So you want to use social media, but like any community, there are unwritten rules. In this series we unravel what these are and how to use them to your advantage.

Unwritten Rule #1 - Use the Right Profile Picture

Profile pictures or avatars are important on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Myspace as they show others who you are. Mine is shown here.

Admitedly there aren't many other people called Hannah Sookias in the world, but a profile picture is important even when there is little chance of mistaken identity.

Ultimately, people like people. Your pages will seem much more personable to the reader and encourage them to connect and interact with you.

A nice, close-up photo is best and if you are using the profile for business, avoid ones that involve you partying!

Top Tip!

I am often asked whether to use logos or people photos on sites such as Twitter and Facebook business pages.

If the business page is for a large organisation, or several people maintain its updates, then I suggest you use the company logo. However, if it is your own company or a smaller enterprise, I'd still recommend a photograph.

Next time: Unwritten Rule #2 - How to write updates