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About this lesson
We explore why we use social media and how that should influence our style. What are the best practices for tone and style when communicating publicly on social media platforms?
Exercise files
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Quick reference
Social Media Basics
What are the best practices for tone and style when businesses communicate publicly or privately on social media platforms?
When to use
Use this section to learn proper business etiquette for communicating with the public via social media and other instant messaging platforms
Main Points
Posts should be about topics your audience is interested in, not just about your product.
Use private messages to respond to specific questions
- Good grammar and spelling are important
- Type 2-3 sentences per message block for readability
- Keep related sentences together
- Use listenable, everyday speech
- Single-word answers are considered abrupt
- Avoid web abbreviations
- Smileys and thumbs-up emojis are acceptable; others generally not
- 00:04 Your company's social media account is a tool that helps you shape your
- 00:08 organization or brand the way you want it to be seen.
- 00:11 You want viewers and followers to be attracted and
- 00:14 engaged in a way that helps you to understand them better,
- 00:17 which in turn can help you to grow your business, that's the end game.
- 00:21 Social media posts that encourage participation and
- 00:24 feedback will expand your reach and expose you to a wider audience, but
- 00:28 engaging posts aren't just about your product.
- 00:31 They can be about related topics that your audience is interested in that'll get them
- 00:36 talking.
- 00:36 So do some research, then you can create a poll use pictures or
- 00:41 videos to get people to stop scrolling and to pay attention.
- 00:46 Sometimes, customers engage with you directly on a social media platform or
- 00:50 on your own company chat portal.
- 00:52 Maybe they have a specific question,
- 00:55 in which case you will need to let them know you'll respond in a private or
- 00:59 direct message, and you can move that conversation to instant messaging.
- 01:03 And here are some reminders when engaging with customers in this way.
- 01:08 Sentences should have good grammar and be spell checked,
- 01:12 not just because you want to make a good impression, but also because it's very
- 01:16 easy to have misunderstandings with poor grammar and poor spelling.
- 01:21 For example, sentences should be separated by periods and
- 01:25 should begin with upper case letters.
- 01:27 Even though that's not common in social communication on instant
- 01:31 messaging platforms, this is important if you're representing a business.
- 01:36 You also want to break up your message into two to three sentences at a time to
- 01:41 make them readable.
- 01:42 But at the same time, you should try to keep related sentences together in one
- 01:47 block to avoid the confusion of the customer typing something in between
- 01:51 which takes the conversation in a different direction.
- 01:55 You should tell them what you're doing if your response is going to be longer
- 01:59 than 30 seconds.
- 02:00 You could say something like, let me check that out, or
- 02:03 I'm just going through your account information, I'll be about two minutes.
- 02:08 The other thing to remember for
- 02:10 direct messages is that your messages should be listenable, meaning they should
- 02:15 sound like everyday speech if someone were to read them out loud.
- 02:18 Remember that single word responses are abrupt, and
- 02:22 they can even come off as rude.
- 02:24 So even if the short answer to a customer's question is yes,
- 02:29 a better response on a chat platform would be, sure, that's no problem.
- 02:34 You want to avoid most web abbreviations so, ok is acceptable,
- 02:39 but ur, lol, idk, these are not usually appropriate for
- 02:44 business communication with customers.
- 02:48 Smiley's and thumbs up are usually acceptable, but
- 02:51 the other emojis they're generally not used.
- 02:55 And here's something interesting,
- 02:57 a final period before you hit send at the end of each message is unnecessary and
- 03:03 is sometimes even considered passive-aggressive.
- 03:07 Now if a customer contacted you directly on your website's chat feature maybe for
- 03:12 customer service or support, the representatives should introduce
- 03:16 themselves with their name the same way they would in a telephone conversation.
- 03:22 This does two things, it's a reference point in the future, and
- 03:26 it also establishes a human connection.
- 03:29 Communication keeps evolving, and as it gets more sophisticated,
- 03:33 the demands are higher.
- 03:35 So people do want quick, knowledgeable answers to their questions, but
- 03:39 we've also learned over the past few decades that people don't like
- 03:43 communicating with robots, they still value the human experience.
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