This document provides tips and best practices for using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram effectively. It advises claiming a vanity URL for business pages on Facebook, adding personality to engage followers, interacting with followers rather than only promoting content, responding to both positive and negative feedback, being consistent in posting, shortening links for Twitter, creating lists on Twitter to organize followers, avoiding auto-posting Facebook posts to Twitter, not using auto-replies on direct messages, using hashtags sparingly, keeping LinkedIn professional, connecting with relevant contacts on LinkedIn, and avoiding hashtags on LinkedIn.

1. The Do’s
and Don’ts
of
www.nowmarketinggroup.com

2. “
Claim your vanity URL
A vanity URL is your chosen name link for your
personal page or business page. When you first sign
up on Facebook as a business or fan page, Facebook
gives you a URL for your page, but usually it is a long,
complicated URL full of random numbers and letters
that probably mean nothing to you. Once your page
reaches 25 “likes”, you are able to claim your own
custom URL, known as the vanity URL. Many profiles
are still failing to claim this vanity URL. Not only will
claiming it help your followers find you easier, it will
be easier to remember and much more flattering.

3. “
Add personality to your pages -
Being present on social media means more than
just a post every now and then. This is your
chance to stand out and build a personal brand;
create a face and personality for your brand.
Bring out your personality in your posts and
make them engaging and fun. If you don’t, people
will quickly move on from your page to one more
engaging.
www.nowmarketinggroup.com

4. Over promote/under interact
Social media is the perfect way to interact with
others, but if all you’re doing is promoting
your brand, it weakens your credibility and
irritates followers and friends. People will start
to unfollow your pages quickly if they see you
do not have strong interaction with your
followers. Don’t be a robot; post helpful
content around your industry.
“

5. Ignore/delete negative feedback
If you are only responding to positive feedback or
simply not responding to any feedback, this makes
you look bad. Completely ignoring negative
comments from your followers is bad enough, but
deleting these comments altogether is worse. This is
your chance to be a hero and engage directly with
your followers. Showing you know how to handle
good and bad situations that arise proves you care
and people will take this into consideration when
looking for a business in your industry to support.
“

6. “
Be consistent
People love consistency. I’ve seen so many
businesses post on their accounts four times a
day, then be completely invisible online for two
weeks. This is a definite way to lose followers.
Think about it, people come to your page to seek
information, so you need to be consistent before
your followers seek a new source of information.

7. “
Shorten links
Twitter posts are already limited enough with
only 140 characters. Posting a link on Twitter
is great, but if you aren’t shortening them
using Bitly, Ow.ly, Tiny URL, or another link
shortening site, it becomes hard to read and
you are further limiting yourself to what you
can put in your tweet. Don’t make it more
difficult than it needs to be.

8. “
Create lists
Lists are curated groups of Twitter users. Creating
lists allows you to organize Twitter followers in
groups and manage how to view tweets. You can
create custom lists or subscribe to lists already
created by other Twitter users. Lists do not allow
you to tweet to other people in the list, just view
them. If you create or subscribe to a list, you will
only be able to view tweets from people on that
list.

9. Auto-post FB posts -
If you’re not familiar with auto-posts, it is when everything you post on
Facebook also gets shared to your Twitter account. You may be
thinking, “What’s the problem with that?” First of all, good Facebook
posts and good Twitter posts are often different. So what looks good on
Facebook, may not on Twitter. Remember, you only get 140 characters
max on Twitter, so your Facebook post could get chopped.
Second, if you auto-post from Facebook for photos and even the post
itself, it sends a link to the Twitter post. Once a person clicks that link,
it sends them to Facebook first, then you need to click the Facebook
link to take you to the link you clicked to view on Twitter, which is a
completely unnecessary step.
Third, there is a reason why whoever wanted to click that link wasn’t
on Facebook or they would’ve viewed it there. People would rather see
that content on Twitter instead of being directed to Facebook when
there is no reason to do so.
“

10. Auto-reply -
Have you ever received a Direct Message from someone you just
followed, thanking you for following them and providing links to
their music, other social media pages, or their friends’ pages? Not
only is this annoying, it’s also extremely impersonal. Anyone who
auto-replies me will get an immediate unfollow (and maybe even
blocked) if they spam message or auto-reply me. For example, I
recently followed a band who had followed me because I love
music; however, as soon as I followed the band, I received an auto-
reply asking me to download their music. Then, they sent me a
second direct message including link for an iPhone download for
their music. On top of that, they sent me a third message to provide
a link for an Android download. After that, I unfollowed the band
and blocked them. I am on Twitter to engage with other Twitter
users, and I dislike being bombarded with anything.
“

11. Over-use hashtags -
Using too many hashtags on Twitter is overkill and
makes you look desperate. You can only use 140
characters on Twitter per tweet to say what you
intend to say. It wouldn’t be smart to have your tweet
mostly made up of hashtags.Hashtags are good in
moderation but if you take it too far, people won’t be
following you for very long.
“
Side note: Hashtags are not #meant #to #be #used #like #this. This is very unflattering and
likely to drive followers away from your profile. Hashtags are meant to be used #likethis.

12. “
Post only professional content/
pictures/etc -
LinkedIn is professional. I see countless people on
my newsfeed posting pictures of their families or
using an unprofessional picture as their profile
picture. Keeping it professional ensures you get
the most out of your LinkedIn experience. Your
connections will take you more seriously also.

13. “
Add hundreds of people you don't know -
Something to remember on LinkedIn: Its purpose is to
manage your professional identity and network with
professionals like yourself. Don’t go too crazy with
connection requests. Having connections with people
who are in your field is a great idea. This opens you up
to new ideas, knowledge and opportunities, but don’t
accept just anybody and don’t go adding just anybody.
It has little to do with the quantity of your connections
and more to do with quality.

14. “
Use hashtags
LinkedIn is a professional social media platform and
hashtags are meant to be engaging and fun. Twitter
and Instagram are the most appropriate platforms for
hashtags, but they can be used on Facebook in
moderation.

15. Ph: 877-380-6698
@NOWMG
For more tips on
using social media
visit our blog at
www.NOWMarketingGroup.com/blog