There are always common courtesies to keep in mind whenever you are in the presence of others. In the age of the internet, however, you can find yourself constantly in the presence of thousands of other people, making it very important to always be on your best behavior. We are all human and bound to make mistakes, but social media can turn even the smallest hiccup into a much larger ordeal. Small businesses in particular have to watch out for any missteps that could embarrass them or hurt their ability to attract new business. In the following article, we’ll discuss some social media mistakes that you can and should avoid if you are serious about maintaining a happy following.

Forgetting to Respond

Perhaps more so than anything else, a lack of responsiveness can make it very difficult for you to grow a small business’ social media clout. In most cases, your business is not going to generate a lot of customer-to-customer discussion via a Facebook page or Twitter account, so it makes sense that you have to engage with each customer or interested follower in order to generate these dialogues. Without a responsive attitude, your customers may feel neglected and potential customers will turn somewhere else for attention. Not only can this lead to a reduction in sales, but it can also further weaken your ability to spread the word via social media.

Being Too Informal

You are the face that represents your business interests. Even if social media can be an informal environment, you should never be pinging noise to readers that may be interpreted as sloppy, sassy or overtly personal. It doesn’t matter how others conduct themselves: you are a business. Because of this, you want to maintain a professional atmosphere at all times and assist customers/followers with any questions or problems as they arise. In addition to this, your status updates and posts should be equally professional and not in the style that you might have with friends or family. Some brands can get away with a more informal tone, but small businesses have to be especially careful.

Saying Vulgar Things

You obviously need to be careful with what you say on social media, but even adult audiences usually do not want to be exposed to gratuitous vulgarity and other indecencies. Pinging noise such as this to your readers may turn off vast segments of your audience and cost your social sharing power. While you may not directly impact sales among existing customers, it can have a domino effect on reaching new audiences. You’ll want to remember that many people have families with small children; they almost certainly do not want their kids to see vulgar content streaming across their laptops or devices when they are around the computer.

Conclusion

Your small business is dependent upon good first and subsequent impressions. You cannot afford to ruin the perception that customers and visitors have of you by engaging in risky or ignorant behavior. Always be sure to keep your conversations formal, avoid saying anything that could be considered offensive, and be prompt with your responses.