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