2 social media rules that are as good as forgotten

Today, social media marketing is a lucrative industry. It’s new, exciting, and dynamic. But is it as effective as it should be?

That’s something to think about. A lot of businesses have jumped into the social media bandwagon without really knowing why they did. This attitude of “going with the wave” has caused us to forget the very basic rules without which success with social media is quite hard to obtain.

That is why there is now a need to pause and think about what we are doing. And fall back on these two very basic rules.

1.    Being genuine
Like exchanges and messages are irritating as hell. You know it. I know it. But we still do it. Why? Because everyone does it! While it does bring up the number of fans, they are not genuine fans. They are there because they want you to “like” them too.

I don’t know how much this is going to be of use in the long run – because these fans are not interested in the content that you may post regularly. So the number of fans will be big but there is zero interaction. That’s not healthy.

Also, while commenting on a client’s post or replying to their comment, make sure that it comes across that you really care for them.  We do not understand the importance of sounding genuine over social media. You are not conversing with your audiences in person – precisely why the need to reassure them. So be genuine in whatever you do, whether liking or commenting or status updates etc.

2.    Hear, and you shall be heard
Again with social media, we have forgotten that we are not the only ones involved here. Imagine having a conversation with a real person. You talk. They listen. And then based on what they gathered from listening to you, they talk. You listen. And so it goes on.
If you want to be heard, you should hear first. But in social media, we are not prepared to hear the others out, are we? We want comments and likes and re-tweets but we are not prepared to comment on others’ posts and updates. In that case, there is no conversation. There can be no interaction if you only want to talk and not listen.

So try to incorporate that in your social media strategy. Comment on other posts. Client’s posts. Get yourself down there and listen, interact. Then your posts will get their response too.

These are the rules that are mostly underestimated – or plainly overlooked. Do you overlook these rules? Let me know by commenting below.

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