You Are What You Tweet

Dr. GoodWrite’s Eight Rules for Social Networking Success

A social networking site – such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn – offers an opportunity to interact with customers, prospects, and business partners on a daily basis. Here are eight rules for creating and maintaining a successful social networking site:

Rule #1: Give it value: To encourage customers and prospects to visit, use your site as a dynamic news source that features current events, new products/services, and special promotions. Also, give customers a chance to get acquainted with your people by inviting others within the company to contribute their thoughts and news.

Rule #2: Provide rich content: In addition to news and information, offer access to product literature, audio and video clips, and podcasts.

Rule #3: Keep it professional: Social networking is an opportunity for casual thoughts, not casual language. Always use complete sentences, proper capitalization and punctuation, and correct spelling. Avoid slang, emoticons, and off-color language. If customers or prospects contribute to your site, you may want to require that their submissions are reviewed by you before being posted, to ensure that they meet your standards.

Rule #4: Adhere to corporate brand rules: Make sure your pages reflect your company’s branding guidelines – including proper usage of logos, color combinations, visual styles, layout styles, and product/service names and descriptions. When in doubt, contact your marketing department for clarification and clearance.

Rule #5: Give it personality: To personalize your site, include photos of your company’s contributors. While these may be snapshots, they should show your team in professional settings and wearing office attire – rather than at home or at the beach.

Rule #6: Protect your reputation: When posting on your corporate or personal Facebook or Twitter page, keep in mind that many companies – including customers and prospective employers – now check these sites to verify the character of those they deal with. Therefore, any references to illegal or immoral activities may be held against you.

Rule #7: Be careful who you “friend”: The social networking scene is full of unsavory characters who sign on to any site as “followers.” Their postings can reflect poorly on your company. Make sure your site’s settings are as restrictive as possible to ensure that only true “friends” can join in the dialogue.

Rule #8: Keep it fresh: Postings grow dated very quickly, so make sure someone in your organization is responsible for maintaining your social networking site on a daily or at least weekly basis. This will ensure that your information remains current – and that your site has not been abused by an outside party.

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