The best brands on Facebook don’t just throw up a page, post occasionally and call it a day— they really work to share engaging content with their audience and work to make them feel included in their conversation. A lot of that stems from having good Facebook manners. Below are the basics in Facebook etiquette that nearly anyone can benefit from a brush-up on.
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1. Don’t turn on those new Facebook messages unless you can handle them in a timely manner, or your rating will suffer.
This guide from SocialTimes breaks down the best approach for brands to take with this new feature.
2. Respond to comments in a timely manner.
Always put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about what you would want from a company if you were reaching out to them in similar circumstances on the same platform. Then do everything in your power to fix the problem. Even if you don’t have the power to fix the problem, sometimes it’s enough for them to feel heard by an empathetic brand representative in a timely manner.
3. Don’t flood people’s feeds with similar posts; do use dark posts to your advantage!
Not sure exactly what dark posts are, or how to use them? This piece from Social Media Today covers how you can use dark posts to share several similar posts to targeted audiences without cluttering everyone’s feed and your own timeline.
4. Do ask to be included in your follower’s 30 accounts they’ll see updates from first in their News Feed.
Facebook recently changed things so that users can elect which 30 pages are a priority to see updates from, in a mix of both friends and pages. Asking your followers to include you in this is an easy way to get a boost in who sees your content— after all, they’re already following you! Just ask politely and include a description or link of how to do it to maximize results.
5. Don’t delete negative reviews.
Instead, address them as honestly as possible and try to fix the problem. Move things to email if it’s too complicated of an issue to solve on Facebook, but never ignore what your customers are saying in any space. Do, however, delete anything that is obviously hateful or threatening. Block and report as necessary, particularly if hatred or threats are directed at a specific employee. Make your employees feel safe.
6. Don’t share too much.
Avoid excessively long Facebook posts, unless you’re experimenting with the revamped Notes feature! A general Facebook best practice is to keep your posts pretty short and sweet, unless you’re a writer with a devoted following or sharing a specific important story. However, some brands have done experiments to find their longer content rewarded, which brings us to our final piece of advice.
7. Do test everything to your audience specifically.
Best practices will always give you a jumping off point, but it’s up to you to tailor your strategy to your customers and the target audience you hope to make your customers.
Want more tips? Check out our free ebook on amplifying your social strategy!
This post was originally published on Union Metrics.