More Social Media Etiquette: Questions and Answers

I love taking questions from likers of my Facebook fan page. I love it even more when the questions pertain to social media etiquette and manners because this is a special area of focus for me. I think that, just as it has been done with offline behaviors, an online standard for what is considered acceptable needs to be created. All too often, I see things that people do online and shake my head. Social media is new and a behavior “code of ethics” is just being developed. As such, I am always happy to answer questions about this issue. In the past two weeks, I was happy to see that a couple of people posted questions about etiquette.

Q: “Lauren what advice would you give to a marketer using fan pages, who does not want to be spammy, to engage fans and turn them into customers? I read your blog on being a fan page admin and it was brilliant.”

A: Thank you so much! I really appreciate your compliment. My advice is to ALWAYS lead with value! Provide GREAT content, engage your fans, talk to them, get to know them, etc. Make them feel as though you VALUE them. That is the first piece to creating a raving audience! Let your fans know exactly what it is that you do. You CAN do this in very classy and non-spammy ways. My fans know that I am a social media strategist and that I help small businesses with their online presence but I am not about the blatant and in-your-face sale, sale, sale. Do you have a blog? If you do and your services are listed on your blog, you can link that page to your fan page. Ask your fans what they think of your services! Get them to take notice of them and make them aware of what it is that you do. Talk about clients on your fan page! Writing something like, “I just helped client ABC achieve XYZ by doing 123 today and it was wonderful.” The proof is in the pudding so show your fans that you are out and about getting good work done! If every once in a while you put up a post reminding your fans that you are out there hustling with clients, they will be more likely to contract your services. No one wants to sign on with a professional who appears desperate. If people ask you questions on your fan page, answer them briefly and then send them a message with a more thorough message. You can remind them that what they are asking is perfectly aligned with the services that you offer and that you would be happy to give them a 15 minute free consultation to see if hiring you would be beneficial.

Q: “As queen of social media etiquette, what’s your take on people liking all their own posts on Facebook?”

A: I LOVE this question because I have put some thought into it already. I am not a fan of people liking all of their own posts on Facebook. I do not particularly understand the point of it. My feeling is that if you post something (good or bad), you are posting for a reason and must like the idea that you are writing it. There was ONE time that I liked my own post and it was actually accidental. Over the winter holidays, my youngest sister was in the hospital. When I made the announcement that she was discharged, I was SO ELATED!!!! I believe that in my excitement, I accidentally liked my own post! I actually might have unliked it after that but I THINK that I kept the like there because I figured, “Why not?”. In my humble opinion, I believe it is attention seeking. In addition, I am pretty sure that liking your own post transfers your update from Recent News to Top Stories and I really don’t like that reason for “liking” either.

At this point, I decided to ask the folks on my fan page if they had any questions because I knew that I wanted to blog about etiquette again.

Q: “What is the best way to connect with authority figures in your niche?”

A: Once you establish who your influencers are, you can start fostering a connection with them. Retweeting them on Twitter is always a good habit. You should not retweet everything but when you read something that is of particular interest, pass it along to your followers! If your influencer is doing a good job with social media, he or she will notice your retweets and take them as compliments that you are liking his or her content. Additionally, replying to tweets is another great way to engage! If your influencers have fan pages, like them and become active in discussions there. If YOU have a fan page, you can now comment on other fan pages AS your page. Definitely use this feature but use it sparingly. Do not comment on EVERYTHING. You do not want to be over-bearing but, rather, get on the influencer’s radar as someone who has new thought and valuable contributions!

I also received a GREAT question about the use of proper grammar. I am going to devote an entire blog post to this topic so stay tuned for the ins and outs of their, there and they’re!

Do you have any additional questions or comments about etiquette? I would love to hear them.