We have been working on our social media manners at PTL Insurance Brokers since we have started to integrate social media tools into our marketing campaigns. Within the social media space, there is certain etiquette to follow and guidelines to be aware of. Whether you are using your social networking sites to connect with customers and promote your business or for personal use, here are three tips to improve your social media etiquette right now!
1.) Professional vs. Personal:
Fill out your profile in a professional manner. If you are using social media for your business, your business logo or a professional photo of yourself are the only acceptable options for profile pictures. If you have an existing personal account and you want to start a business page, keep them separate. Your personal profile should always be separate from your business page. Use your real name to make it easier for people to find you. Nicknames should be saved for personal accounts, not associated with your business. If you are concerned about privacy tweak your security settings. Facebook has settings where you can allow as many or as few people to view your profile. Twitter allows you to protect your Tweets to display them only to your followers. For usernames, your full name or you’re the name of your company are your best options.
2.) Sending and Receiving Friend Requests:
You can lose credibility very quickly if you try to inflate the number of connections you have by sending out hundreds of friend requests to people and businesses you don’t know. If you do not really know the person, if they are out of your local area or if you do not know very much about the company, refrain from sending out friend requests. It looks great on your profile to have 500 friends but if 499 do not interact on your page, it provides no benefit to you. Keep in mind that people judge you by the company you keep. You can be as selective as you would like when it comes to people sending and receiving friend requests. Also, check your accounts regularly to ensure that you are accepting friend requests in a timely manner.
3.) Proofread and Check Your Spelling:
One of the most unprofessional things you can do is write wall posts, send out Tweets or write blog posts that are filled with grammatical errors and misspelled words. If you don’t have the time to proofread it, don’t publish it. There is nothing that appears more unprofessional than a post with misspelled words and grammar mistakes. If you don’t take the time to proofread and check for mistakes in a blog post as an agency, what would make a potential customer believe that you wouldn’t make a mistake on their very important California business insurance policy? A proofreading tip that is always helpful is to read the post aloud so you can hear how it sounds and catch mistakes easier. Building an active social community, which will inevitably help grow your business, should be fun. When done right it can also be very profitable too! Not only do you need to be strategic about what you post but you also have to be genuine in regard to the information you share. Using social media to positively promote and brand your business can be easy when you make authenticity your number one priority!
About the Author: Rick Pedevill is Agency Principal at PTL Insurance Brokers, Inc. located in Covina, California.
