The Dos and Donts Of Social Media

How Your Small Business Should Be Using Social Media

DOS

DO follow people in your industry, and develop a community around your industry. Comment and reply and retweet what's useful to your audience.

DO post content that corresponds to each platform. Instagram is all about the image or video. Pinterest is about inspiration. Video works the best almost everywhere.

DO make your social channels all about the content. Is the content you're posting valuable and does your audience look forward to what you have to post? You want that answer to be a yes. 

DO use convenient tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to schedule posts and save you time.

DO use your social media channels as an opportunity to grow your business by providing great content and value.

DON'TS

DON'T use social media to incessantly direct message potential customers about your new product or service.

DON'T let your accounts stay inactive. I've struggled with this. But inactive accounts just show that your business might as well not exist. If you're not using a certain channel actively, you almost might as well delete it.

DON'T use every "national day of___" to post content that has nothing to do with your product or service.

DON'T only post when you're trying to show off or asking for money.

DON'T expect your social media following to blow up over night. Daily effort over the long term will pay off.