In this ever-so-memorable episode of the incredible 90’s sitcom, Seinfeld, we meet a man named the “Soup Nazi”. If you aren’t familiar with the lovable character, read the episode plot and watch the video to get a taste (pun intended).
Now, we’re going to work from end of the story to prove a point. After aggravating Elaine, a strange twist of fate puts the Soup Nazi’s secret recipes in her hands, causing him to close shop and move to Argentina. In the beginning, the man’s behavior towards his customers was only excused because of his incredible soup. In the end, his sense of security brought his soup to its tragic ending. Although there’s no “Soup Nazi: Part 2”, we can assume that even the most diehard soup-lovers in NYC would have sympathized with Elaine’s anger. If the man had been reasonable, the likelihood is that the soup-buying community would have stepped in and helped him maintain his shop and would have viewed Elaine as unreasonable.
See where I’m going? Follow me here: Don’t be a “Communication Nazi”. There are ways you can isolate your customers with your assumption that your product or service is so good, you can treat them any way you want. Think again.
Etiquette
Let’s say this: unless you’re marketing yourself as an individual, then your individual social media accounts don’t “count”. Do whatever you like as long as the majority of your prospective clients won’t be viewing your “Weekend in Vegas” album on Facebook. But etiquette is huge for an organization or official representative’s account.
The way you type updates (statuses, tweets, emails, etc.) matters.
- DON’T TYPE IN ALL CAPS- it’s amateurish. Use bold instead or the occasional all caps word. Or consider making your update so engaging that you don’t need emphasis.
- You should punctuate correctly, but it’s more important to punctuate consistently. No one will call you out for the “comma before the ‘and’ in a list” thing, but stop using all the ellipses and dashes and semicolons unless you know how to use them. The same goes for the way you capitalize words. Here’s a guide.
- Try to limit the text message jargon. ‘Ur gonna <3 our nu product 4u’ just doesn’t look professional. Shorten only when necessary.
- Proofread. No, really.
No spamming or flaming.
- Don’t send auto direct messages on Twitter to new followers unless you have something actually beneficial to share. Don’t send mass ‘@replies’ advertising your website. Don’t repost your latest blog post to any social network over and over.
- Hopefully, this is easy: never, ever publicly bash a customer, potential customer, or even rival company. Not only does it look bad, but, unlike your spoken words at a bar on Friday night, everything you say on the internet will forever remain publicly available.
Be Savvy
In the social media world, especially, savvy equals professional. If you’re going to invest in this way of communicating, then actually invest! Become a part of the community.
Check your tags/mentions.
Pet peeve alert: When using the @ symbol in Facebook or Twitter, make sure that the username is properly inserted- and make sure the username actually exists and is the person you’re wishing to tag. For instance, Apple’s new social network, Ping, cannot be ‘mentioned’ on Twitter as @Ping, because someone else already has that username. Don’t make that mistake.
You should know that when you begin a tweet with a ‘mention’ or ‘@reply’, only users following both you and the other user can see that. A common remedy is to put a period as the first character.
Don’t use an account as a mirror for another.
Basically, don’t set up a Twitter account, hook it up with a Facebook page, and never check it again. This seems silly and won’t do you much good- maybe a little. Even if you don’t tweet much, engage the community, especially if you get questions or mentions by other users.
Use the different aspects of the network.
For Facebook, set up (or pay someone to set up) a custom landing tab for your Page, even if it doesn’t do much. It looks good and it’s easy. Post links to your site, of course, but post useful links and respond to comments. Facilitate communication.
For Twitter, utilize all of the functions as much as you can. Provide useful links (and use a link shortener), retweet other insightful users, @reply to your mentions- again, facilitate communication.
Intelligent Vulnerability
You need to know if the internet world is having a discussion about your brand. If there isn’t one, encourage one. If there is, guide it towards positivity- it’s hard to regain favor in your absence.
Monitor your brand.
Use Twitter search or a tool like TweetDeck to periodically search for your brand, or even keywords related to what you do.
Be honest.
If you’re monitoring, you might see that you have an ‘Elaine’ situation on your hands. Handle it with honesty, integrity, and prompt action. If you have an established presence in social media, ‘Elaine’ won’t be the only voice mentioning you.
Be willing to learn.
For what to do, see Dominos– not perfect, but trying. For what not to do, see Xfinity (ahem, Comcast).
What do you think?