5 reasons to have a social media policy

There are many benefits for having a social media policy for your business but here is a quick overview of my top 5!

1) To define your objectives, so that everyone understands the reasons for being on social media.

2)  Establish roles and responsibilities. Who is responsible for posting, monitoring, quality, content etc

3)  Distinguish between personal and business use and set standards for acceptable behaviour.

4)  Set standards for the business and define the on line brand e.g. ‘Templates’ for profiles and updates and which platforms to use

5)  Establish a strategy for how to react when things go wrong so that problems can be dealt with effectively, limiting damage to your business

What would you add?

Why your business needs a Social Media Policy

If you are in business there are many reasons why you might need a social media policy – even if you are not currently using social media.   Just for starters consider the following;

• Social media is here to stay, do not make the mistake of thinking that just because you are not interested in using social media you can just ignore it
• It is increasingly likely that your employees, colleagues and clients will be on social media – and they will expect you to be as well.
• A compelling on-line presence it necessary for most businesses and it takes more than just a website to attain this; social media is an ideal addition to your on-line presence
• If you employ people it is good practice to include social media use in your HR policies, so that you can set expectations for your employees
• Your Social media profile is a public representation of your business brand or ‘persona’; it is vital to ensure that it conveys the right image.
• Social media is a great source of market research and customer service: it is vital to LISTEN.

When drafting your policy think about

• Your strategy – like other areas in business, social media needs a strategy to ensure that your activity contributes towards what you wish to achieve
• Weighing the benefits and risks of engaging with social media, your social media policy can help minimise the risks and enhance the benefits
• Your social media profile – Your social media is a very public face of your business and needs to be carefully cultivated and safeguarded.
• The level of involvement of all parts of your business and differentiating between personal and business use
• goals – How will you measure success?

A social media policy could include include

• Purpose – your social media strategy and how you expect to achieve your goals
• Standards for security, privacy, quality, confidentiality
• Roles and responsibilities, including ownership of profiles and associated data
• Relevant compliance issues – professional and legal
• Expectations for business use. Set guidelines for your social media activities (e.g. processes, who can post, platforms used etc)
  When representing the business specify guidelines for which platforms are required/permitted, how profiles are defined, content posted, quality. frequency
• Expectations for the personal use of social media. You can not stop employees using social media in their personal lives but you can give guidelines as to acceptable behaviour and how this reflects on you and your business/brand
• Review; particularly important due to the pace of change in social media so frequent reviews of all aspects should be written into the policy

Tips for starting on Twitter

If you are thinking of starting on Twitter here are a few things you should consider first  

1. Have a profile picture. People are more willing to follow and engage with those who have a profile picture than a plain ‘egg’ and try to make the picture distinctive. Remember that because twitter is constantly updating your post will probably be only briefly visible amongst a string of other updates. If your picture stands out people will recognise that you have tweeted. Additionally, many people will read their twitter feed on mobiles devises so your profile picture will be very small that will make it more difficult to distinguish it from others.
2. Add a description to your profile. If people have seen your posts they will probably want to know more about you to decide whether or not to follow you so add some information to your profile. It will also give people some idea about what to tweet with you about.
3. Use your characters wisely and although you have a maximum of 140 characters, don’t use them all. If you only use 120 people can retweet you and add comments.
4. When using hashtags don’t use too many (a maximum of three)
5. Be authentic and create good content. If you help and offer advice followers are likely to engage with you and read, retweet or reply to your tweets.
6. Don’t strive for followers, strive for engagement. Ask people questions and respond to other people’s tweets. You will have a greater influence by having a high level of engagement with fewer followers than a large number of disinterested followers.
7. Give credit when using other peoples content, use mentions and retweets.

If you’re struggling on determining how long your tweet should be, what your tweet should contain, hashtags, etc. remember to K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid.)

For more hints on Tips on Social Media Like my Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaCoachingAndTroubleshooting

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How and why to set up a Facebook Business Page

Whilst working with business owners on their social media I often get resistance to using Facebook. Of course Facebook is not for everyone or every business, however, many businesses use Facebook and get great results. So, as businesses that do not use Facebook may be missing out on opportunities, this post is designed to help people take the plunge!

Just some of the reasons to be on Facebook

• Customers are on social media and expect to find you there
• It is a great way to promote your business/brand
• It is a good way to monitor what your clients/customers are saying
• To promote your products/services and offers

So, firstly let’s consider possible starting points

• No existing on line presence or the user does not ‘do’ social media
• Facebook is not appropriate for the business type
• The user does not have a personal Facebook profile
• The user has a personal Facebook page and wishes to keep their personal and business separate

Taking these points in turn

1) Having an on line presence is becoming vital for almost all businesses and social media is an effective means of achieving and supporting this.  Many businesses have a website and social media can used to compliment the website or, in some cases,t o replace it

2) Facebook is particularly good for B2C businesses; it is a great way for small businesses to promote themselves. If your potential customers are not on Facebook it might not be worthwhile using it. For example if you are B2B LinkedIn might be more apropriate

4) it is important (and good practice) to distinguish between personal and business profiles. Facebook requires people to register for a person page before they can create a Business profile. it is easy to create a person profile by signing up here  https://www.facebook.com  You only need an email address and to give your date of birth and whether male or female; all other information is optional.

Once you have  a person profile you can set up your business page – see below. Business pages are separate from your personal page so you do not have to worry about your personal information being open to your  business contacts (although it might be a good idea to check your personal privacy setting)

To help you set up a business page have a look at the video

http://youtu.be/PJutsHB4DUg

Before you hit ‘post’

If you are new to social media or have only used it for personal networking you might want to stop and consider the points below before you start business networking

1. Have a purpose.  Why are you posting? For example do you want to inform, initiate a response, gain followers, and promote yourself /your brand?
2. Don’t just vent. Just because you are angry about something don’t just vent for several reason, mostly 1) others might not care about these things 2)You may say things that are offensive or that you later regret  3) You are unlikely to be objective
3. Who cares? One of the comments I hear from people who do not use social media because ‘I don’t care about what celebrities are doing or what other people have had for breakfast’.  So, before you post that update ask yourself who cares.
4. Be relevant. If you post things which resonate, again ask yourself why people will read it and why
5. Is it the right platform?  There are many different social media platforms and it is important that you select the one which will reach the audience which you wish to reach in the format which they will engage with.  E.g. if you want to engage businesses LinkedIn might be the best platform
6. Is this the right audience? In order to ensure you are on the correct platform you need to think about whom your audience is and which platform they are using.
7. Spell check, don’t use profanities, and don’t offend.
8. Would you be embarrassed?  Remember that once you post something you can’t ‘take it back’ and even if you post it on a ‘closed’ forum don’t post anything which you would not want anyone else to read.
9. Don’t use abbreviations/jargon
10. It is clear? – will people understand the point you are trying to make?

 So now why not just have a go?

A beginners guide to social media for Business

If you are in business you probably know the value of networking face to face and building relationships with customers and colleagues, but do you make use of social media to promote your business. Using social media means that you can network even when you cannot make an event – you do not have to wait until the next event to promote your business. You can use social media to extend your network, cement existing relationships and build your profile, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that Facebook and Twitter are just fun for kids or publicity for celebrities etc. It is true that they CAN be those things, but they are also a great means of staying in touch, getting support from others and maybe even finding a job, building a business or attracting customers!

Combining social media with mobile technology (smartphones etc.) means that you can network virtually anywhere and at any time so don’t miss out and get left behind. Remember, if you are not on social networks and your competitors probably are, when potential clients are looking on social media they will not even know that you exist but they will see your competitors.

There are hundreds of social media platforms, the main ones used by business are LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook

In addition to having a ‘personal’ profile on Facebook you can set up a separate business page. This is useful to keep your person and business posts separate and so, even if you don’t use Facebook as a personal, private network, your business can still have a presence on it.

The main difference between personal pages and business pages is that Instead of having friends, business pages have ‘Likes’. When someone likes your page their friends will see that and also whenever you post anything it will update their news feed   You can see what others are doing, raise your own profile and keep a look out for opportunities. In addition, posting, commenting and ‘liking’ other people’s posts will raise your profile further.

You can be as private as you want (ask about security settings if you are really worried) although the more you post, comment and ‘like’ the more visible your business will be to others. If you click on account you can change account setting (your person details) and privacy setting (what information you are willing to share and with whom).  Just a final word about ‘security’ don’t post person details and only accept friend requests from people you know and trust.

Twitter

The first time you go on Twitter you might not be able to understand any of the posts as they do seem to use a foreign language! This is often because there is a 140 character limit on the posts so people use abbreviations and links. I can let you have some guidelines to help decipher the codes if you need it!

Start by following people who will make you laugh or whose opinions you respect. Every day I have a look for posts and know that if there are any they will make me smile and best of all they are usually easy to understand as they are just short funny comments or a simple title and link. You can also follow people or businesses you want to work with, people whose opinions you value, thought leaders or just to keep up with developments in your professional community. Because Twitter is constantly updated you can use it to get immediate feedback and also to spread news and ideas quickly.

LinkedIn

I love LinkedIn! Use it a bit like Facebook and similar rules apply about privacy, but also remember it is about career and professionalism so make sure you give the right impression. A  professional photograph is essential and your profile should be carefully drafted to project the correct image of professional persona.

Did did you know that LinkedIn is fully searchable by Google?

Type in Catherine Jones Training and (at the time of writing)  the top answer is a link to my LinkedIn page. If I had a name other than Jones I might not even need to give the word ‘Training’ I have tried it for some of my colleagues with more unusual names and got them without any further information in the search. If you are on LinkedIn give it a try. It is also worth thinking about that when you put any information on, that will aid peoples searches and what they might use.

So as it is all about business/professionalism/career obviously the focus is different to Facebook.  I would definitely put a photograph on as people are more likely to contact you and unlike Facebook you might what to connect to people you have never met in person so it makes that a little easier.  There is no need to put any updates at all but I find it very useful to follow discussions and contribute if relevant. It is also a great opportunity to make contacts all over the world and discuss common interests. I would recommend joining relevant groups and follow discussions, comment and build relationships.

Google+ and Pinterest are also becoming more influential and will be covered in a later blog

If you would like help with social media find me on social media www.onepageprofile.co.uk/people/catherinejones/