The Do’s and Don’ts

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“ Claim your vanity URL A vanity URL is your chosen name link for your personal page or business page. When you first sign up on Facebook as a business or fan page, Facebook gives you a URL for your page, but usually it is a long, complicated URL full of random numbers and letters that probably mean nothing to you. Once your page reaches 25 “likes”, you are able to claim your own custom URL, known as the vanity URL. Many profiles are still failing to claim this vanity URL. Not only will claiming it help your followers find you easier, it will be easier to remember and much more flattering.

“ Add personality to your pages - Being present on social media means more than just a post every now and then. This is your chance to stand out and build a personal brand; create a face and personality for your brand. Bring out your personality in your posts and make them engaging and fun. If you don’t, people will quickly move on from your page to one more engaging.

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Over promote/under interactSocial media is the perfect way to interact with others, but if all you’re doing is promoting your brand, it weakens your credibility and irritates followers and friends. People will start to unfollow your pages quickly if they see you do not have strong interaction with your followers. Don’t be a robot; post helpful content around your industry.

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Ignore/delete negative feedbackIf you are only responding to positive feedback or simply not responding to any feedback, this makes you look bad. Completely ignoring negative comments from your followers is bad enough, but deleting these comments altogether is worse. This is your chance to be a hero and engage directly with your followers. Showing you know how to handle good and bad situations that arise proves you care and people will take this into consideration when looking for a business in your industry to support.

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“ Be consistentPeople love consistency. I’ve seen so many businesses post on their accounts four times a day, then be completely invisible online for two weeks. This is a definite way to lose followers. Think about it, people come to your page to seek information, so you need to be consistent before your followers seek a new source of information.

“ Shorten linksTwitter posts are already limited enough with only 140 characters. Posting a link on Twitter is great, but if you aren’t shortening them using Bitly, Ow.ly, Tiny URL, or another link shortening site, it becomes hard to read and you are further limiting yourself to what you can put in your tweet. Don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be.

“ Create listsLists are curated groups of Twitter users. Creating lists allows you to organize Twitter followers in groups and manage how to view tweets. You can create custom lists or subscribe to lists already created by other Twitter users. Lists do not allow you to tweet to other people in the list, just view them. If you create or subscribe to a list, you will only be able to view tweets from people on that list.

Auto-post FB posts - If you’re not familiar with auto-posts, it is when everything you post on Facebook also gets shared to your Twitter account. You may be thinking, “What’s the problem with that?” First of all, good Facebook posts and good Twitter posts are often different. So what looks good on Facebook, may not on Twitter. Remember, you only get 140 characters max on Twitter, so your Facebook post could get chopped. Second, if you auto-post from Facebook for photos and even the post itself, it sends a link to the Twitter post. Once a person clicks that link, it sends them to Facebook first, then you need to click the Facebook link to take you to the link you clicked to view on Twitter, which is a completely unnecessary step. Third, there is a reason why whoever wanted to click that link wasn’t on Facebook or they would’ve viewed it there. People would rather see that content on Twitter instead of being directed to Facebook when there is no reason to do so.

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Auto-reply - Have you ever received a Direct Message from someone you just followed, thanking you for following them and providing links to their music, other social media pages, or their friends’ pages? Not only is this annoying, it’s also extremely impersonal. Anyone who auto-replies me will get an immediate unfollow (and maybe even blocked) if they spam message or auto-reply me. For example, I recently followed a band who had followed me because I love music; however, as soon as I followed the band, I received an auto-reply asking me to download their music. Then, they sent me a second direct message including link for an iPhone download for their music. On top of that, they sent me a third message to provide a link for an Android download. After that, I unfollowed the band and blocked them. I am on Twitter to engage with other Twitter users, and I dislike being bombarded with anything.

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Over-use hashtags -

Using too many hashtags on Twitter is overkill and makes you look desperate. You can only use 140 characters on Twitter per tweet to say what you intend to say. It wouldn’t be smart to have your tweet mostly made up of hashtags.Hashtags are good in moderation but if you take it too far, people won’t be following you for very long.

“Side note: Hashtags are not #meant #to #be #used #like #this. This is very unflattering and

likely to drive followers away from your profile. Hashtags are meant to be used #likethis.

“ Post only professional content/ pictures/etc - LinkedIn is professional. I see countless people on my newsfeed posting pictures of their families or using an unprofessional picture as their profile picture. Keeping it professional ensures you get the most out of your LinkedIn experience. Your connections will take you more seriously also.

“ Add hundreds of people you don't know -

Something to remember on LinkedIn: Its purpose is to manage your professional identity and network with professionals like yourself. Don’t go too crazy with connection requests. Having connections with people who are in your field is a great idea. This opens you up to new ideas, knowledge and opportunities, but don’t accept just anybody and don’t go adding just anybody. It has little to do with the quantity of your connections and more to do with quality.

“ Use hashtagsLinkedIn is a professional social media platform and hashtags are meant to be engaging and fun. Twitter and Instagram are the most appropriate platforms for hashtags, but they can be used on Facebook in moderation.

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