Meaning and sociability – a corporate guide to social media etiquette

“Women belong in the kitchen.”

Unfortunately for Burger King, this tweet certainly didn’t go well on Twitter (not surprisingly).

Although the importance of the post was only clarified in subsequent tweets, the damage has already been done. Burger King faced a lot of negative reactions and had to remove the post.

The Burger King disaster highlights the importance of social media label standards for your company and employees. In this article, you will learn how to avoid the bad etiquette of social media and watch your behavior online.

Social media is now a part of everyday life with more than 4.4 expected users by 2025. Therefore, it is quite simple for brands to use it to communicate with their customers.

However, just as it is crucial to practice proper etiquette in a personal conversation, you should do the same online.

Poor etiquette on social media can lead to dire consequences for the wrong company. In 2018, for example. Snapchat lost about $ 800 millionafter he published a post that seemed to trivialize domestic violence.

If you don’t want similar dire consequences for your business, then you need to take social media etiquette seriously.

The benefits of social media etiquette

Here are some benefits of practicing proper social media etiquette.

This makes your brand empathetic

Your audience is your greatest asset and using proper etiquette on social media forces you to put yourself in their shoes. And when you’re in their skin, you get a better view of their wants and needs.

It helps you recover from failures

There is no perfect brand and we all stumble sometimes. However, with good social media etiquette, you can recover from your mistakes. For example, despite the failure, as noted in the introduction, Burger King was able to turn things around, at least to some extent, with an apology that seemed genuine.

This makes your social media campaigns more productive

Social media is a mine that is hard to navigate. However, good social media etiquette can guide you and help you achieve good results.

It helps you focus on what matters

Good etiquette on social media reduces the chances of a fire that you will have to put out on social media. This will give you time to focus on what really matters: the result.

That keeps you on the good side of the law

If your platform has privacy and compliance laws, good etiquette will help you stay on their good side and protect you from lawsuits and the like.

It keeps you on top of your thoughts

When you respond quickly to feedback, including positive feedback, you show that your customers’ opinions are important.

This will make it easier for your business to maintain top-notch attention for these customers.

What to and should not consider when labeling social media

Every social media platform is different, but social media etiquette goes beyond these differences and will deliver good results regardless of the platform. Here are 5 things to do and 5 regardless of social media etiquette.

What to do about social media etiquette

1. Stick to your core values

Your core values ​​should resonate in your content. So if one fundamental value is respect, we should not exclude bold comments from our social media.

On the other hand, if your brand is big with humor, there would be fucking comments about the brand. A great example of this is Wendy’s.

2. Respond quickly

Here are some interesting statistics: 79% of customers expect a responsewithin the first 24 hours of reaching your brand on social media.

So respond as soon as possible. A quick response to positive feedback enhances the likeability of your brand to customers.

The slow response, especially to complaints, makes customers feel left to read – and we all know how that feels.

Nike (@NikeSupport) responds to customers every few minutes, which is probably one of the reasons why people love them on social media.

3. Fill out your social media profile

If people come to your site and see an imperfect profile, it gives the wrong impression and they will think you are not serious enough about working with them.

So fill out your profile and include useful information, such as contact information, where appropriate.

Glossier’s Instagram profile, for example, contains information you need to know about him and includes his website where you can get more information.

4. Use hashtags correctly

Hashtags can increase engagement, but too many hashtags on a post can make you look unprofessional and annoying.

To show good etiquette on social media, you will only need to use hashtags that are relevant to the post.

The Coca-Cola #ShareACoke hashtag is a great example of a brand that has used hashtags well.

5. Publish regularly

Although your audience and industry should be considered, it is a good rule of thumb to post at least once a week.

If you don’t, there is a risk that you will lose opportunities to increase brand awareness.

Not the etiquette of social media

1. Don’t overdo it with humor

Humor is subjective and what is funny to you can be insensitive to others or downright offensive.

If you are not sure how to accept the joke, it is better to lock it.

In addition to Wendy’s, there is another brand that has hacked into ridiculous responses and posts on social media, Innocent Drinks (@innocent)

2. Don’t be desperate

Don’t despair to get followers. It can be embarrassing to see a company asking for followers at every opportunity.

By publishing valuable and authentic content, you will be able to increase the number of followers and gain high-quality interactions that will attract even more people.

Fenty’s posts on social media include testimonies from women of different nationalities and ethnicities, which is one of the reasons for his rapid growth.

3. Don’t over-promote your business

Followers will quickly get tired of seeing too much of your brand on social media.

Balance is key. If you will ever post more often than before, tell the audience in advance and explain why. Then they will be less likely to stop following you during your hike.

4. Do not use a bot for answers

Are you tempted to use a bot to respond to your customers? Then you are on your way to losing them.

Users are smart and perceive when a response is automated. If you can’t be online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, share the hours when customers can contact you on the platform. The Twitch Support CV contains a range of help and hours worked.

5. Do not write in capital letters

DO YOU WRITE WITH BIG LITTLE? Then you’re probably burdening your audience. why BECAUSE IT FEELS YOU SHOUTING AT THEM!

forehead The official business website of Twitter for brandsdoes not recommend tweeting in capital letters.

So stop all capital letters. They are not funny and act rude and aggressive. Use capital letters only if something is really important (or exciting) and you definitely MUST warn the audience about it.

Etiquette of social media for employees

Social media can be a minefield and only good social media policies can guide brands and employees around it. Here are some guidelines to protect your employees and thus your brand from indecent behavior on social media.

Respect others

Although employees have the right to say what they have in mind and can post content in their personal time, it is important to encourage them to be polite and calm on social media.

Thinking before answering or posting online can relieve a potentially bad situation.

Respect privacy and confidentiality

Social media is not a place to discuss sensitive company matters or disclose inside information.

As an employee, you may not be aware that you are discussing sensitive or internal matters, so it is best not to take risks. If this is not your place or you are unsure, proceed without discussing such matters online.

I don’t always want to be first

The rush is due to the fact that you were the first to ‘publish the news’. However, this can cost the price of losing a job.

So before you post or comment, make sure you have the right to share the information. Even if you are not fired because of this, some of the information you share can harm others and ruin relationships.

Don’t use social media during your employer’s time

Your employer pays you for your time, so act accordingly. Don’t abuse their trust, even if your employer allows you to use social media at work.

If you are a social media manager, stick to professional accounts. Using this time to deal with unimportant, personal things is unfair. It’s also risky because you can end up shuffling bills and post something you shouldn’t with your professional account.

Be an ambassador of good company

Be sure to represent your employer. So publish the information as you publish it on their behalf.

Be prudent when posting online. For example, if someone posts negative information about an organization, don’t get bogged down in confrontation. Instead, tell someone who is responsible for the matter or give you instructions on how to handle it.

Follow the etiquette of social media in the right way

This etiquette of social media that you should and shouldn’t, may seem hard to follow. However, following them can save you and your business a lot of stress.

Several brands have experienced the power of revocation culture first-hand, and you can avoid their experience by practicing good social media etiquette.

When you care about your audience and put yourself in their shoes, you can have a good culture of social media etiquette that will benefit your brand.

Editor’s note: This publication was originally published in March 2010 and has been updated for completeness.