I often compare good social media practices to the same etiquette one would employ as a dinner guest at someone’s home. People peruse social media sights in their downtime – they may be amusing themselves or they may be educating themselves. For example, if they wanted to bring up their presence on social media for their business, they may want to buy instagram verification badge so they appear more formed for their targeted audience to take notice of. Whichever it is, they want to be engaged with valuable content. And it is up to you to provide it. The more creative and engaging your posts are, the higher the chance it has of making a significant difference to your instagram followers, and in a positive way. When you consider the concept in this light it makes the Do’s and Don’ts of social media much easier to comprehend.
A stagnant or incomplete site will do more harm than good
It make you look unengaged and unprofessional. Did you know that Market Basket did not have a website or social media site until 2017? They were a little late to the game and even had a fan start a coupon website for me them about 10 years ago. They have however hesitantly joined the game. Starbucks on the other hand is the Beyonce on Facebook. Their posts are typically photos that celebrate the season and their own products in a charming feel good way. They are typically no links or coupons associated with the posts.
Be Unique and Engaging with your Sharing
Wayfair, the affordable online furniture store, wins the prize in the area because of their use of Instagram. 
Through Instagram shopping, guests have the ability to tag specific products within a picture so users can go directly to a landing page and buy it. Wayfair has done a great job of implementing this feature into their social media strategy. Jet Blue has knocked it out of the park on Twitter.
Focus on the Networks that fit your Business
Not all platforms are created equal. It is important to be able to distinguish how to utilize each platform to suit your needs. Check out Nike’s LinkedIn in page that is geared towards Jobs, the Nike Foundation and connecting business to business. Oreo is known for its simple, creative social media content — and its Instagram videos don’t disappoint. The video below is a great example of a fun, creative video that works perfectly for the platform. Oreo Video
Maintain an Identity across all Networks
I met with a restaurant owner this past week who had a domain name that said one name, multiple signs at the venue that had different fonts colors, styles and names. Who are they? It would be better for them to get a singular font to unify their brand, be it from https://www.fontspace.com/font-generator or made custom for them, as a major point of proposal will be defining the brand.
BMW shines on YouTube by channeling a car enthusiasts dream come true. BMW’s YouTube brand channel is a car enthusiast’s dream come true. In BMW’s videos, experts often share historical and technological information about various BMW cars. Snap Chat has had tremendous success in the younger market on Snap Chat running all sort of photo contests and games.
A few Don’ts:
- Don’t Over-share your Content
- Don’t use Poor Grammar and Spelling
- DON’T CREATE POSTS IN ALL CAPS
- Don’t excessively use Hashtags
- Don’t Share Same Message Repeatedly
- Don’t share Sadness
- Don’t Project yourself as know-it-allThe power of marketing and branding for small businesses is remarkable however, it often gets put on a backburner by business owners who are multitasking. While Social Media is a free go to marketing source, it is often intimidating and laborious to many small business owners who are multitasking and often put marketing on a back burner.