5 Unwritten Rules for Social Media Campaigning

1. Double-check questionable posts

Although you might think a post is funny and harmless, others may find it offensive. Offending someone in your network can lead to a serious downhill snowball effect for your business.

Consider the grandmas, the conservatives, the liberals, and everyone in between before clicking enter on those questionable posts. 

This blog post is part of “Your Definitive Guide to Lead Generation” blog series.

If someone is offended, they’ll usually cease doing business with you and possibly tell their friends and colleagues to do the same.

Although the social media coordinator probably did not know that a little boy died in this plane accident, many people were seriously offended by this joke. It's always a good idea to do a little research before posting a random photo.

2. Be careful with posts involving death

Many businesses make the mistake of using the death of a celebrity or public figure to market their organization.

It is usually appropriate to give a reasonable and respectful acknowledgement of their passing. If your audience takes your message as an advertisement piggybacking off the person’s death, thing usually won’t end well.

Apple has shown noteworthy examples of respectful commemorations in the past. The most recent message concerning Robin Williams was a clean and to the point message:

3. Never respond rudely to the consumer

Although it might be tempting at times, responding to a complaint angrily is one of the worst things you can do.

A rude response comes off as unprofessional, stupid, childish, and sometimes downright crazy.

You not only lose that customer or client forever, you most likely lose the trust and respect of anyone who sees that response. The one person who engages with your consumers on social media forms those people’s impression of the entire brand. 

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4. Quality over Quantity

While many people recommend constant Tweets and Facebook posts, I’d say to value quality over quantity when considering a social media campaign.

Sure, it’s okay to Tweet a few times throughout the day, but nobody wants to see constant pointless content unrelated to your business.

If an article catches your attention and you believe it would be useful for your audience, go ahead and share it. If it’s a cat video that you watch while procrastinating at work, it’s probably better left private.

5. Mix things Up

Many businesses make the mistake of solely posting promotional material. While this is acceptable every once in a while, your posts should be varied and provide useful and interesting content for the user.

The only way for a social media campaign to be successful is to post multiple types of content. Try mixing things up with a distribution of funny posts, inspirational content, conversation starters, educational material, and of course a bit of promotional content. Remember to post things that the user finds useful or interesting, if it doesn’t fall under either of those, it probably doesn’t belong in your social media campaign.

Nike is one brand that always has admirable social media campaigns and continues to provide multiple kinds of content:

Inspirational

Promotional

educational and inspirational

Did we miss any 'unwritten rules'? Let us know by commenting below. For more about optimizing your social media strategy, check out this handy set of resources.