Social Media Basics – What Works?

By Joyce Feustel, Founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, and CWCC Member

Business professionals – be sure to do some research before deciding to be active on social media sites. Determine which social media sites your clients are using, which ones your competitors are active on, and which ones you would be likely to use.

Once you select the social media site(s) you believe will be the most effective for you and your company or organization, do the following:

• Complete your profile on each social media site where you are active. Be sure to include a photo that looks like you.
• Be selective when making connections on a social media site.
• Use the site’s inner messaging system (e.g. messages on Facebook) for one-to-one communications with your connections.
• When stumped on how to do something on the site, turn to the site’s help center.
• Carefully review the privacy settings for each site and adjust the settings to meet your needs. Periodically revisit those settings.
• Post regularly to the site. For sites like a Facebook business page or a LinkedIn personal profile, posting anywhere from 1-3 times a day is recommended. For a site like Twitter, most people active on it are posting at least 10 times a day or more.
• Comment on the posts of your clients and your business colleagues. Additionally, with LinkedIn, you can congratulate these individuals when they post a job promotion, work anniversary, and/or a new job.

Additionally, people using social media for business purposes should always keep in the 80/20 rule in mind when posting on social media sites. That means that 80% of what you post should be informational types of posts. No more than 20% of your postings should be promoting your services or products.

Social media activity can be woven into your business day, much like returning a phone call or reaching out via email. Just schedule in about 10-15 minutes once or twice a day to review the postings of others and make your own postings.

About Joyce Feustel
Joyce Feustel, founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.