Good Business Social Media Practices VS the Not-So-Good—Our 2022 Guide

We’re nearly halfway through the year, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to learn about good business social media practices for 2022! 

In a time where Internet use is the norm, the web is a landscape with fierce competition and unforgiving clientele. You need a strategy that helps you say “no” to efforts that don’t further your goals. 

That’s why we’ve put together this crucial guide on good business social media practices versus the not-so-good. 

Whether you’re familiar with the unwritten rules of social media marketing or totally new and in a bit over your head, this guide has you covered!

Good Practice: Conjure Up Emotional Connections

Most business sales that come as a result of social media happen because of emotional marketing. That is, a business has successfully created an emotional connection between the viewer and itself. Take REMAX New Dimension’s post as an example: 

In this post, REMAX conjures up an emotional connection with the reader by mentioning Thanksgiving, friends, and family. It also subtly promotes features about the house they’re trying to sell! This is a great use of emotional marketing. 

Bad Practice: Coming Off As Arrogant or Unrelatable

On the flip side of Good Practice #1 comes Bad Practice #1: being too arrogant or unrelatable. If you’re a business that caters to a specific demographic of people and you’re consistently making posts that demographic would know nothing about, you’re going to alienate your entire customer base. 

For example, a personal tax accountant that provides services to low-middle class citizens would have no business making a post that details changes in the top 3 tax brackets. Instead, they might consider posting tips about how to get the largest tax refund possible. 

Good Practice: Personally Connect With Your Viewers

Customers love to see the real person behind all these business social media accounts, so let them! Even the most successful businesses are constantly finding ways to start relevant and put personality in their posts. 

Take Wendy’s, for example.

In this Tweet, the person running Wendy’s Twitter mentions “people in charge” and breaks the fourth wall. They also add in a touch of humor and specifically break typical capitalization conventions to increase relevancy among younger viewers.

Bad Practice: Promoting Your Business Too Directly

Gone are the days of treating your social media as a mid-day commercial slot! People no longer want to see you directly promoting yourself and often cringe away from it, in fact. 

For example, what if we were to make this entire article about the content calendar software we sell? It wouldn’t be as interesting or engaging, would it? 

Similarly, the people viewing your social media want content that benefits them instead of you. It seems counterintuitive, but building trust with your audience and showing that you’re looking out for their best interests first can seriously drive up those viewership stats. 

Good Practice: Offer Helpful Content

As we mentioned, helpful content is the key to your customer’s heart. Publish content that helps them and you’ll have their undying trust. 

The Levinson Real Estate Team goes above and beyond with this infographic depicting the best times to rent versus buy. This both builds trust with their customers while also increasing website views as they get click-throughs!

Bad Practice: Publishing Inconsistently/ At The Wrong Times

Nothing will kill the benefits of those good business social media practices faster than inconsistency. We also mentioned this in a recent blog post, but inconsistency is a major red flag in your customer’s eyes. From their viewpoint, if you can’t even commit to a posting schedule, how are you supposed to provide stellar services? 

All too often, business owners fall victim to thinking their social media isn’t working. This usually happens because they don’t see an immediate return on the time they put in. Then, after a few weeks or months, they decide it isn’t worth it anymore and give up. 

A few months later, they hear about a success story where a small business went viral. They think “I can do what they did!” and decide to test their luck again. Then, when they don’t see the same results, they quit. Rinse, repeat. 

This is precisely what you should not do. Social media is a long game marketing strategy, meaning you have to keep at it for a while before you start seeing noticeable results. The more consistent you are, the faster you will see these results. 

Good Practice: Using a Social Media Content Calendar

Once again, consistency is key, and if you want your social media to be consistent without consuming all of your extra time, you need a social media content calendar. 

For those unaware, social media content calendars look similar to daily planners in that they map out specific tasks for specific times. However, they also include categories that are personalized to the needs of your business’s social media to make content organization easier. 

Here is an example of a social media content calendar: 

Notice how, in this example, there are sections that include Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, as well as spaces for notes, holidays, and copy. This allows you to sort out weeks’ worth of posts ahead of time in a way where you can simply copy and paste them over when the time is right. 

If you aren’t good at making up spreadsheets on your own, though, Content Cory’s social media calendar is perfect for you. Utilize the weekly and monthly sections to organize all your post ideas and notes in one beautiful overview to make content creation easier than it’s ever been. 

We hope these practices and examples have inspired you to maintain new social media standards in 2022—and that you’ll come back for more updates in our next blog post!