Social Media. Ah the excitement! The joy! You will get a Facebook page and your business will erupt in success! It is so easy, just look at all of the teenagers online or glued to their phones. If they can do it, then you can definitely do it…
WRONG. Yes, social media can be very helpful in developing a strong reputation, but there are some fatal flaws in your thinking. While considering how to sum up those fatal flaws, we were reminded of the seven deadly sins. And guess what. There are 7 (ish) sins to social media too. Here we go:
- Lust: When you first start out on social media you look at your competition online. You see all of their shiny friends and want some of them for yourself. Stop right there! As a business page, you need to let people come to you. Whatever you do, do not buy friends or followers. The people who do that online are not sincere. Create good content and follow the rest of our tips and people will come.
- Gluttony: Don’t overpopulate your new online space. Keep your content relevant. Don’t give into the temptation of reposting every single interesting thing you see online. This includes hashtags people. #Do #not #hashtag #every #word #you #post. When used correctly, hashtags can be a helpful took to track traffic and gather people around a specific topic. When used incorrectly, hashtags are plain annoying.
- Avarice (greed): We couldn’t really come up with anything for greed, so here is this point instead: Follow through with everything that you say you are going to do online. If you say “Like this to be entered to winsomething cool and awesome,” then enter everyone who “liked” your comment. People like it when you do what you say you are going to do. And they will like you too.
- Sloth: Keep creating content- don’t be lazy! While it is essential to share your followers’ posts, it is equally important to create your own content and share that with your followers. Why would someone follow you if you only repost what they post? Original content will establish you as an expert.
- Wrath: Never let your anger out online. Venting, bashing and attacking online will get you plenty of attention…although not of the right kind. Look what happened when this couple decided to use their business Facebook for venting.
- Envy: Don’t hold a grudge when you see someone who is doing things right online. Study how they are doing it and apply some of their techniques to your own pages. A successful social media page requires a strategic plan, coordination and daily effort. Channel the feeling of jealousy into crazy work on your own page.
- Pride: We aren’t sure this always qualifies as a sin- it is important to have a healthy amount of pride in your accomplishments, but there is a fine line to walk. Share success stories about your business (people are following you for a reason) but it is more important not to OVERSHARE. Did you write a book? Cool beans. Promote it sure, but don’t promote it to death. Remember the golden rule of self-promotion: for every ten social media posts only one of those should be a self-promotion. No one wants to click on an interesting headline just to find that it is a plug for a product.