Social Networking – Avoiding Bloopers

Networking online through social media sites is a great way to reach a worldwide audience.

The only problem is, once you put something out onto the web it’s gone, but not forgotten as it will be there forever.

Therefore it is important to have a strategy in place before you start. After all, you don’t want to experience that sinking feeling – you know the one I mean. When was the last time you send a text to the wrong person and stood watching your phone helplessly because you couldn’t get it back?

To help you survive and thrive in the online world, here are 3 simple tips to help you avoid making too many bloopers along the way.

1. Strategy

Briefly touched on above, it is essential you have a strategy in place before you dabble in social media.

If you throw things out in to the ether willy-nilly it will have no effect whatsoever. So, before you get going make sure you:

• Know what the goal of your campaign is
• Who your campaign is aimed at
• What your audience want to know
• The actions you need to take to get results

2. No optimisation

 The idea about social media and social networking is to boost your online visibility. But in order to be found, you must optimise your profiles.

That involves including your keywords in your biography.

3. Ignore feedback

Feedback, good and bad, must be dealt with.

Ignoring comments and messages is rather like sitting in your office and ignoring all calls and customers that walk through your door.

Social media opens up new channels through which your customers can interact with you. They will make use of your Twitter account and Facebook fan page. They will openly tell you what they think of your products and services (both the good and the bad) so it is essential you monitor these channels and deal with their feedback in a timely manner.

This is where your strategy comes into play. You must gave guidelines in place so your staff understand how to deal with positive and negative feedback to make sure you don’t end up with a PR disaster on your hands.

Over to you

Social networking is a great way to promote your business online, but it is essential you have a strategy in place.

How did you go about putting your strategy together?

Did you start out with one, or were you forced into it?

Leave your comments below and see if we can put together some best practice tips.