When you own a business, one of the most important things to maintain is the reputation of your start-up and anyone involved with it. Social media, especially Twitter, can be powerful tools to help create a buzz for your brand and attract new customers. This is also, however, one of the fastest ways to give potential customers the wrong impression.
Making sure that employees represent you and your business well on social media is not always on the forefront of your to-do list, but it really should be. Before ever having employees engage customers via Twitter, make sure to be clear about your goals and selective about the way you represent the business. Here are a few tips for making sure your Twitter presence remains strong.
1. Enforce a code of conduct.
Make sure that your employees know exactly what you do and don’t want them saying about your business online. Most owners think that certain things are common sense, and this is often true, but every business owner needs to remember that their perspective is entirely different from the perspective of their employees.
Young employees can slip up and make inappropriate comments or divulge information that shouldn’t be shared. A clear set of guidelines will help everyone distinguish the differences between what’s okay and what’s not in those gray areas.
2. Choose select employees to work social media.
Instead of having all your employees set up a Twitter account and start automatically tweeting away, it’s much better to choose a few select employees who will to run the company account and tweet from their personal accounts as well. This allows you to create a specific voice for your brand.
In fact, many business owners employ recent graduates for social media alone. This is a great way to start from the ground up with your Twitter presence and really create a brand that is recognizable.
3. Encourage positivity.
One mistake that employees often make while tweeting is something they may not even realize they’re doing. It’s common enough to want to gripe about how long the work week feels or how terrible the weather has been the past week, but a large amount of negative tweets could give off the wrong impression to potential customers. You don’t want people thinking that your employees are not happy with what they do or that the company is negative, in general.
Let your employees know that all tweets should be framed from a positive, or at least level-headed, perspective. And, if they have something negative to say, it’s best to keep it to themselves.
4. Keep an eye on personal accounts.
Even if you do choose to have only a select few employees tweet on behalf of your business, you never really know what current employees are saying about your company or products on their personal accounts. Make a habit of following your employees and checking their Twitter feeds occasionally. If there is anything going on that you should know about, it’s best to catch these things early on.
About the Author
Karen Smith, a former newspaper reporter, now freelances for various publications and websites. She hopes to bring her readers the latest in business education at onlinebusinessdegree.org, as well as up-to-date, informed advice on everything from careers to parenting to health and more. Karen welcomes your comments below!