Eli Rose Social Media specializes in helping small businesses optimize their online presence. They offer everything from search engine optimization to easy to understand training to ongoing social media management. Every Tuesday, they offer insights to the readers of Little Indiana on how to use the internet and social media to build their online brand. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Social Media can be a very subjective landscape. Everyone you speak to has different things they insist you must or must not do. If you had to boil social media down to 5 simple rules, these would be the ones that apply to every business.

The Rules of Social Media

  • Be consistent To really make social media worth your time, it’s crucial to have a steady, consistent level of activity on all of your brand’s social media accounts. You have no control over how a customer will first come in contact with your brand. If you haven’t updated your accounts in weeks or months, that first impression isn’t going to be a good one. Also, Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm is “affinity”, measures how much a user interacts with you. If your Facebook activity drops off, your fans’ affinity will drop off, too, decreasing the likelihood they are shown your updates once you start posting again.
  • The 80/20 Rule Often, brands use social media to promote their specials – and that’s it. Customers see this as a new type of direct mail – and eventually they tune it out. In order to keep your customers (and potential customers) engaged, promote yourself in only 20% of your posts.
  • Updates should be “Relevant & Complementary” Before you begin, come up with a list of topics that are relevant to your customers. This becomes a guide to formulate your content strategy. Using some of your updates to promote other businesses can help build a network that can promote and refer people to you as well.
  • Follow-up with commenters & questions When someone leaves a comment on Facebook or sends you a direct message on Twitter, it’s crucial to continue the conversation. Not doing so is the equivalent of ignoring customers who enter your store. You wouldn’t do that “in real life”, so you shouldn’t do that online either. In fact, following up on Twitter is how we got this guest posting gig at Little Indiana. Social media is all about building a network – and to do that, you have to talk.
  • Be Human If things are all business all the time, no one will realize you’re actually a human being. This makes a huge impact in how people perceive your business. Showing some personality helps to humanize your brand. This is especially important if you use your business logo as your avatar for all social accounts.

Social media can be a confusing landscape. But with a little guidance it can become a fun way to generate solid leads and build a strong network.

Interested in learning more? Head on over to Eli Rose Social Media or follow them on them on Facebook or Twitter.

Just don’t forget to tell them that Little Indiana sent you.

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