This is a guest contribution from Jennifer Landry.
What do you think of when you hear the word etiquette?
For most people, the term conjures up images of a relative telling them to chew with their mouth closed, or to take their elbows off the table. So what does it mean when it’s applied to social media?
In general terms, etiquette is a set of guidelines on how to behave properly around other people. While you might not have face-to-face interaction with all of your followers, the way you present yourself online directly affects people’s opinion of your brand. You might be surprised at the amount of companies, even the big ones, that don’t quite understand this simple fact and have posted inappropriate updates that made light of important events or misused certain hashtags. The simplest way to avoid this problem is to read over your posts before pressing publish. If you think it could somehow be misconstrued or you’re not sure what the hashtag means, it’s best to simply not post the update.
While you might know the basics of presenting yourself on social networks, you might not realize that there is a set of more nuanced etiquette rules for each of the different platforms. The infographic below outlines these unspoken rules for the most popular social networks. While not a complete list, it can help set the groundwork for how to post and interact with your audience.
Jennifer Landry is a writer/journalist living in Malibu, California.
Hi Jennifer,
I dig that IG. As for responding to all comments, when it gets into 20 or more daily, and then, up into the hundreds, it becomes impossible. I see 200 or more RTs on some days, and a ton of comments/text tweets too. No can do ;) But I vibe with responding to comments for 5 or 10 minutes and then, I focus on writing eBooks, or writing for my clients, or publishing posts and building bonds through blog commenting.
2 words sum up awesome social; be nice. Be nice. Help people. Don’t fight. Be polite. All flows out of being nice, being pleasant and just plain not starting fights. Some talented bloggers muck up social because they forget to be nice. They spend 20 minutes writing long-winded, angry responses to comments they disagree with. Let go the need to be right, and you’ll leapfrog about 95% of folks using social. Share goodness, thank commentors, and please, you need not respond to nasty folks. They don’t deserve your attention, and refusing to feed trolls will not only save you heartache, it’ll boost your online rep because where your attention and energy goes, grows….meaning, you’ll be focusing on the positive friends and fans instead of trying to convert a troll into a happy person.
Tweeting from Fiji Jennifer.
Ryan
Engaging with Facebook fans may be useful too…
I don’t really use Facebook like I should and I think it is almost a must. I really liked the infographic and that is pretty interesting that Canada is the most country on Facebook. I guess I have to start building my Facebook following, thanks for the info!
This is a very useful information. To know this etiquette in using a social media is very important especially people nowadays are active in using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. I would like to thank the article contributor for this post.
In some cases, multiple hashtags are good simply because it’ll help your posts to gain more visibility on Twitter, Google +, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Maintaining a positive reputation on social networks is always good for business, because it benefits your online rapport and income potential to make more money from products and services sold on your blog or website.
Jennifer, no doubt that cultivating the time to respond to comments is good social etiquette how ever I agree with Ryan that when the number of people you connect with have grown to an exponential level it becomes difficult.
I think for big brand its easier for them to deploy people who can then carry out that task.
That is why I believe that its important we focus on few platform where we can concentrate our forces than spread ourselves thin by being active on many social network.
The author said the right thing. Now-a-days social media is the part of our daily file. We can not imaging our file without social medial likes FACEBOOK and TWITTER. So, I do agree with you. Thanks for your nice post.
Great Infographic Jennifer. I think many people forget that one of the key aspects of social media is connecting with people. It is about building relationships and we can only do that if we behave appropriately.
An amazing guide for social and interestring Infographics. I agree with Kostas, many people who run social marketing campaign forget about building relationships. Today, buyers will not buy product from a stranger or the people that they don’t know much.
Thanks for your great guide.
Hi,
I guess one of the most valuable post what I read from you so far!
Thank you! Helped a lot :-)
All the best,
Mich
Another great post from problogger. I’ve got to say that adding tweetable quotes throughout posts has proved really successful for me. Leveraging influencers is also a great way to drive more traffic and get yourself known, just make sure you go about it the right way and don’t come across as needy or spammy.
One word for this post “Fantastic”. I always try to get lot of social traffic on my posts or blog. Hope this post will help me out a lot and I prompt use these tricks to get social traffic.
Thanks for sharing wonderful tricks.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing very informative information. There is a guidelines for each every social media platforms. what ever posting in social media, many people visit the information. So we have to follow the guidelines.
Great post! I myself run a small youtube channel where I make drum covers, and it has slowly grown into almost 5000 subscribers now and well over 600.000 views, sometimes it’s just not easy finding the time to respond to all comments, I can only imagine that it would be a waste of time to answer comments when you reach 20-30.000 subs+, but great post nonetheless, I still answer my comments while I stil can :)
This is a very useful information. Thanx Jennifer
Thanks Jennifer Landry for this wonderful Info-graphic… this will help me focus on twitter, G+, and linked in more easily now because i m struggling to get a hold there… keep up the good work.. cheers..
This is quite a nice infographic. What website did the author use to create it? And, is there a way to optimize infographics so that search engines give the site that hosts the infographic more traffic?
Great overview of the different traits of those social media sites. Thanks for posting and I’ll definitely share this info with my team.
Jennifer,
I love this infographic! As a college student, I am learning about social media etiquette all the time, whether it’s in my business or communications classes. It is really helpful to see the big social media platforms and their respective mindsets for posting.
Aww it’s a very Informative!! Nice Infographic.
Great job Jennifer Landry!
These info graphics are really helpful and the information is great. It is important that these etiquette ideas be pointed out. So many people just barge into a social media platform and do whatever they want. The most common errors I see occur on LinkedIn where people do not realize that it is a professional network. That is the one place that you should not post a drunken selfie as your avatar. This will be useful of my web portfolio students.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks so much for sharing this nifty infographic with etiquette tips for each social media platform.
Happily, I think I know most of them. Yeah. It’s always great to confirm if you’re doing things well – or not – so glad to see I’m doing ok.
I did also pick up a few other great pointers that I wasn’t aware of, so thanks heaps!
cheers, Lash
This is very interesting view about Social Media guide. I find it very logical and useful in same time. Worth reading this post.
Hey Jennifer, this is an insightful post. Responding to bad and ugly tips can be really tricky, you need to be really smart, so that it does not hurt the user who posted the comments. Also can you you please let us know what exactly is “hat tips” (H/T)?
This is an insightful post, the infographics have been presented very clearly, differentiating the various social media platforms, very helpful to the new kids on social media platforms.
Thanks. I am also running a social media viral website and would definitely implement your techniques to improve my social media presence and popularity.
Nice post , great tips . I think social media is always good for business , now days evrything is on internet but how to use it is also very important .
As Jennifer Landry said use 80-/20 rule, yes people use social media for entertainment first so entertaining them and providing information should be first task and selling them second.
Thanks for sharing such useful tips Jennife.
:)
Implementing this techniques are awesome but remember “Social Engagement” to fans and followers should be number 1.
This is very interesting view about Social Media guide. Thanks for sharing