Social Media Faux Pas and Tips

Accidentally hitting ‘like’ on a person’s 7-year-old post or picture. Oops.

Now they know you’re a stalker! Not to worry – we’ve all been there and they won’t think anything of it. Social media is there to scroll through so if you’ve been snooping and have tapped the like button accidentally then that is perfectly fine, as long as it isn’t an ex-partner…

Getting caught out.

Not everyone does this and if you do, then get ready for stress! You’ve made plans to meet up for dinner with your friend who is also your friend on social media, however someone has just invited you to a better dinner outing which you’d prefer to go to. So you tell your friend that your child is sick and that you’ll have to reschedule the dinner (so that you can go and have a blast at the other outing.) Next thing you know, someone has tagged you in a post which informs everyone that you are out having the best time, scoffing Chicken Chow Mein and guzzling wine like a mad-man. The friend you were originally supposed to go out to dinner with is scrolling through Facebook and is probably looking a little something like this:

Your friend is feeing hurt and you’re left feeling guilty. If this happens to you, then you’re better off just coming clean and apologising. To avoid this, either invite the friend along to the more appealing outing or keep your original plans. Or you could deactivate your Facebook account – although that is a bit extreme for a Chicken Chow Mein.

Vaguebooking!

This is my pet hate. Vaguebooking is a great term for a bad habit. Posting vague updates on social media is the most annoying way to peak curiosity. I want to know what was so shocking (other than the grammar).

Tears of laughter or just tears?

This is a laughing face.

This is a crying face.

Admittedly I find the below examples hilarious examples of how this confusion could land people into trouble.

Just be aware...

Tips

Okay, so that is the fun bit over. Here are a few tips that will get your social media on the right track:

It is tricky to lure people into reading your content. This depends on how active you are on social media and also depends on your social media presence.

We make sure we post something every single day, so that when we are out of office, the social media is not forgotten about.

I use Hootsuite to do this which covers a variety of social media platforms. I put a few hours aside each month and schedule three promotional posts to be published each day for the whole month.

That way our social media is active and I can dip in and out to post helpful blogs as and when we write them.

It also allows me to concentrate on other people’s posts. I used to make the mistake of spending an hour a day writing lots of posts and blogs, however that means I am only concentrating on our business, which isn’t how social media works.

If I’m too busy writing my own posts to see that someone has posted a status where they need advice on something like VAT rules, then I have missed an opportunity to offer advice and to build up our corporate identity.

Everyone has their own online presence so it is completely up to you how you would like to be portrayed.

If you are the director of a solicitors and are marketing to bigger businesses, you may feel that it is appropriate to be very professional online.

If you are a personal trainer, you may focus your online presence on giving away free tips.

We focus our online presence on our company values – a big part of that is being knowledgeable and approachable, because that is how we like to be portrayed.

Have a go at using Hootsuite and schedule a few posts to be published over the next couple of days. After you can scroll through your profiles and you’ll be able to see how much healthier they look.

If you need any help at all regarding social media then I would be happy to assist, you can email me: corinne@allseasonsaccountants.co.uk