50 Golden Rules of Social Media Management

We hope that our mammoth 50 Golden Rules of Social Media Management can help all businesses applying some great techniques and tips to improve their current results from the many social media platforms out there today. Read and enjoy!

1. Think about strategy before you commence your social media life – Know who you are going to be, how you are going to communicate and what you will be promoting and talking about.
2. Consistency of names across Social Media channels, try and secure your business name and try use same url extension on each platform.
3. Branding. When you can and budgets permitting, brand each of your pages to the highest standard possible and keep it consistent across each channel.
4. Experiment across each platform.
5. Study where your competitors are promoting themselves and see if they are using certain platforms more frequently than others.
6. Know your target audience and research which platforms are most popular for them.
7. Time of day and days of week are important when releasing updates as your target audience may have certain time slots when they are most active.
8. Monitor web traffic from Social Media and in detail study which updates on which channels are doing best in driving traffic to your website.
9. Share your social media channels via your website, blogs, email footers, business cards etc.
10. Check for updates to any of the platforms as daily they introduce new additions and functions.
11. Share you content across social media, think blogs, images and videos.
12. Re-share content frequently to build relationships with other users.
13. Competitions are great on social media, think about creating your own for your business such as ‘best quotation for an image’ to engage members.
14. Social Media have specific competitions for users awarded by marketing companies and celebrities, keep a look out for these (especially on Twitter).
15. Remain active, nothing is more of a turn off than accounts which have random updates and has had no activity in months.
16. Social Media is 24/7 so think about updates outside of your normal 9-5 day.
17. There are many management softwares to help with updating, scheduling and reporting on your social media activity. Some cost, some are free.
18. Make sure your accounts are 100% complete, remember to add your URL, phone numbers, opening hours etc.
19. Social Media is very mobile, so if you have a smart phone add the apps to it so you have no excuse to not being able to update!
20. Don’t be afraid to try something new if things are not working, 1.5bn people actively engage in social networks globally.
21. Be careful to engage in debates as you will always offend someone else. Try and steer clear of politics, religion and football.
22. Profile images need to be up to date and a true indication of yourself and the position you hold. Suit and ties do work in business!
23. If you company is too busy to handle your own social media, think about outsourcing the work instead.
24. Make sure that not only have you accounts, but you have pages for your business profile too so that consumers can connect easily.
25. Think about groups and pages not only for your business, but within your industry. Ie an estate agency running a ‘First Time Buyers’ linkedin group etc.
26. Research what is working and what isn’t. There are great social media info website updating us with recent success stories from each of the platforms.
27. Think about using outside softwares / apps that help to enhance your social media experience.
28. Understand the important difference between a public reply and a Direct Message (DM)
29. Be careful about mixing business with pleasure on Social Media – Ideally create business accounts and private accounts.
30. Have office rules on usage of social media, especially if multiple members of staff are active under your brand.
31. Remember that social media platforms have rules and regulations so read up on them to avoid being suspended or worse.
32. Do not spam, social media is about being social and not be hard sold to.
33. Think about creating Q&A sessions or reTweet hours to engage your followers weekly at pre arranged time slot. ie #ColchesterHour or #MechanicQuestionHour.
34. Nearly all brands and celebrities are on social media – It is known that these high profile accounts respond to consumers so engage with them.
35. Ask your audience about how your service / products are and if there are ways you can improve what you do – Consumers love this engagement.
36. Respond to all comments, negative or positive because if you do not take the time to do so then someone else will!
37. Always give people proper credit for their work and make sure you have the right to use something before you share it.
38. Understand that OSU’s official discrimination and harassment policies apply on line.
39. Never post copyrighted photos, music, text or video content without permission of the copyright owner.
40. Asking questions and taking polls are good methods to get your audience involved via social media.
41. When using on line video on Youtube, be mindful of people’s time, attention and surroundings and keep videos short if possible and to the point.
42. Use caution when you click links that you receive in messages from your friends on social media platforms, especially direct messages.
43. Don’t be boring. Keep it short on social media as most people want to scan read updates for key points.
44. On Linkedin, it is nice to send a short note of congratulations and good luck when “Status Update” tells you someone has a new job.
45. Try and find time to cross post content across all your channels not just one.
46. Be selective about who you accept as a friend on a social network as there are many fake / spam accounts and these look bad on your profile.
47. Teach younger members of staff, especially those under 18 how to safely use Social Media as not everyone is sincere out there!
48. Take advantage of custom tabs on your Facebook page as they are easy to set up and many are free.
49. Study the analytical pages that social media platforms offer and see how your efforts are working.
50. Don’t delete complaints from customers on social media channels.  Deleting a comment will annoy the complainant further!