No matter whether or not you’re into Social Media you would have no doubt heard of social media’s awkward and uncomfortable stories. You can’t go anywhere now without hearing someone reference what they’ve seen or read on social media. Social media can work absolute wonders for a business if used in the right way. But with that being said, social media can also be the undoing of a great and successful business. In this article, I will be discussing 5 crucial factors you must consider before making any post on social media. If you think before you post, this can spare you some serious future backlash and embarrassment!
Let’s get started…
1) Can Your Post Be Seen As Offensive?
My first major point to consider before posting on your business social media accounts is to think whether or not your post can be seen as offensive to anyone. Social media literally has the power to make your post world famous within seconds, and although this can be extremely beneficial it can also be very, very costly for your business.
It’s often the case that for many small businesses they just have the one person who looks after their social media accounts and they just post what they want when they want. There is often not a plan in place which explains what and when a post goes live. This can sometimes be the downfall for many businesses as the person posting may unknowingly post an offensive message/image. Before you then know it this post has been shared numerus times and even when deleted the post will still be shared around the web.
The impacts on your business after this can be tremendously negative and not only could you lose potential customers and clients, but you could even face court depending what message was in the post. This is an extreme example but you need to understand that posting online really does go worldwide and is extremely hard to remove and backtrack.
2) Is Your Post Promoting The Right Offer?
My next point to consider is to check you’re in fact posting the correct and right offer on your business social media accounts. It’s important to make sure you’re posting the right offer, at the right time, on the right platform. Many businesses have seasonal offers and offers that only apply during certain dates. When posting such offers make sure all the information and dates are correct. The last thing you want to do is to post an offer, only for your business not to be running that offer at that time! This could result in potential customers getting annoyed that you’re promoting incorrect offers which don’t currently exist and current customers who see this will lose trust in your business.
It all comes down to keeping a positive image of your business. If you’re posting offers online which don’t actually run with your real-time offers then people will lose trust within your business and you’re branding and this will only lead to a negative image of your business.
3) Is Your Post Tailored To The Right Platform?
Every social media platform works in a different way and it’s vital that you post the right content on the right platform. Each platforms offers you different character limits, different ways of tagging images, different ways of adding trends and its vital you match each one up to the correct platform.
The worst thing you can do is just throw together one post and publish the exact same post on every social platform you have. This will lead to posts being cut off, hashtags being in the wrong places and images with poor exposure. Make sure you actually put the effort in and tailor each post you have to the correct platform. Yes, this will mean you spend a little longer putting posts together and publishing them but the results speak for themselves.
4) Have You Checked & Rechecked Grammar
Checking for grammar mistakes in any content you produce is a massive must! So many businesses produce content without even checking for grammar and spelling mistakes. All it takes is for you to make 1 tiny grammar mistake to lose current customers. If a customer or potential customer sees that you’ve made a grammar mistake they can soon take their business somewhere else. Not checking grammar and spelling is an amateur mistake and you need to stay away from this.
One of the best examples of this I’ve seen is on the program ‘The Apprentice’. There has been so many occasions where teams have been so rushed to produce content or products that they’ve forgotten to check spelling. This not only makes them look highly unprofessional and never sits well with Sir Alan Sugar!
5) Is The Image In Your Post Suitable?
Nothing is worse than scrolling down your social media feeds and seeing an image which is totally shocking and inappropriate. Make sure you’re thinking about the image you’re uploading alongside your post. Just because the image you’re uploading is a normal site for you it doesn’t mean your current and potential customers will agree.
The best example for this is if you’re posting about health and safety or the safety of a product or service. The message you might be posting could be absolutely fantastic and include some great content, but if the image is not appropriate no one will actually read your post and will just rush past it. Always make sure your image is appropriate to all audiences and never upload an image which could be seen as inappropriate.
Learn even more about how social media can help your business with these excellent articles we’ve posted this year:
-The Impact Of Social Media On Society & Business: What This Means For Your B2B Brand
-Which Social Media Platform Is Best For Business?
-Social Media for Ecommerce Businesses
Final Thoughts
Whatever industry you specialise in you will always be uploading posts that cross over subjects and topics. Always make sure you think before your post and if your post can be taken in another way then don’t post it! The last thing you want is for your posts to bring bad light to your business and to negatively impact on your social media campaign. If you’re struggling to cope with your own business social media accounts then get in touch with us today. We manage a whole host of client’s social media campaigns and have extensive knowledge on social media.
