Businesses – September 2012

Advice that should be taken into account when making a post on a social network

As much for personal as for business type social networking, it is very important to build the credibility among our followers and the satisfaction of our customers; therefore, I will make the following suggestions about posting on social networks sites.

• Respond to all the comments whether they are positive or negative. Social networks are the same as in real life. On social networking sites, things don’t have to be different, when you post something, and they comment, respond immediately. Express appreciation in each case.
• Do not make a Like/Me gusta, +1, Retweet, only to have one. Analyze what it is, and click, if you really like what you are watching or reading.
• Configure carefully the privacy or security settings of your social networking sites that you use. You must do this, when you finish setting up your profile. If you are very interested in the subject of security and privacy, try not to put too much personal information.
• Customize the content you post. If you use multiple social networking sites, try to publish content that is different and focused to the types of users of each.
• Experience, learn and be creative.
• Configure your profile carefully, and upload a photo of either yourself or your business. It is important that when you sign up on a social networking site that you put your information so that other users know who you are and what you are looking for.
• Be patient. If you are new to internet marketing, you need to learn the user rules of each social networking site such as how to communicate with other users, etc.
• Be yourself, do not lie.
• Respect others, their information and privacy. One advantage that social networking gives is that we can give our opinion, suggest, comment, communicate, and offer, but we also need to respect the opinions of others.
• Be positive.
• Do not accept everyone just because you want to have more contacts. Remember that quality is better than quantity. Before accepting a friend request from someone, check to see who he is, review his profile, explore his wall in the case of Facebook, his Tweets for Twitter or his Google+ profile, read what he writes, what others write about him. This will help you decide whether to accept his invitation.
• Relax. After being a long time on the internet, an individual’s sight and reaction time may become impaired.
• Don’t just think of yourself, read and comment on what your friends and followers publish.
• Watch your spelling.
• Companies need to show their human side. If you represent a business or a company, show that behind the logo or slogan, there is a person who thinks, who cares about the customer, who is willing to listen, and respond to positive and negative things.
• Critique, but with a basis and a knowledge of the subject matter, context, history, etc. Don’t just do it to get it over with.
• Cite sources, if you share something that is not yours, a phrase, an article, a photo, etc. Also, try to share the source where you saw or read. If you can, just post the link.

If you have any suggestions or comments please email me at eddyd@cnylatino.com