Social Media Rules of Engagement

Today’s task for 31 Days to a Better Blog is to recommit to being more engaging on Facebook and Twitter.
 

Treat Twitter and Facebook like a cocktail party – that’s the best advice I’ve ever read about the proper way to engage your audience and build your brand via social media.

Remember that you’re trying to have a conversation with people and that you want those people to find you interesting.

Post regularly (several times a day), but don’t ramble. Be intentional about what you post. Obviously, you should use Facebook and Twitter to share your blog posts. Also post tweets and status updates that are informative, inspiring, helpful or humorous. Don’t bore your readers with every detail of your life and don’t use social media as a place to rant about how much you hate your job, your neighbor, or your husband. Save that for your therapist.

Get personal. While you shouldn’t use social media as free therapy, don’t be afraid to show your personality. Share posts about fun, funny, or exciting things going on in your day. You don’t want to be all business all the time.

Stay on topic. The people who follow you on Twitter do so for a reason, so make sure you deliver. For example,  people tend to follow me because they’re interested in writing or blogging, feminism, fitness, or faith. There are also several fellow Birmingham residents who follow me. So I try to tweet about those topics and about things going on in my city. 

Remember you’re not the center of the twitterverse. Make sure your tweets and Facebook posts aren’t all about you all the time. This is like having a friend who only wants to talk about herself. Use your social media channels to promote other bloggers and writers as well. Retweet and share intriguing posts by others. Compliment and thank people for sharing something insightful.

Ask questions. You don’t want to spend your time on Twitter and Facebook talking to yourself, do you?  Social media outlets are meant to spark a conversation, so ask questions to show your readers you care what they think too.

And to lead by example…

What are your Facebook and Twitter rules of engagement?