Social Media Best Practices

After studying the top most engaging brands on the web and going in depth to see how Starbucks and Dell did it, I have gathered some tried and tested best practices businesses can apply into their own social media efforts.

This is also an extension from my article, “How to: Be a Social Media Winner”. Most people teach theories but I prefer to show theories being implemented by real successful companies. So here goes!

Be Relevant to Your Different Markets

Different people from different geographical location and language consume information differently. The problem with many marketers and PR representatives is that their message is too generalized. Don’t create the same message to be used across all markets no matter if they are from China or Chile. Get out of oblivion and modify your messages to make sure it is relevant to and understood by the market you are communicating to.

Thomson Reuters made sure that it is a source of relevant intelligent information to specific markets through Twitter.

Build Trust and Credibility

One reason why Dell decided to teach social media to small businesses is to gain trust and credibility from consumers. By portraying as an expert in the field, it shows how established and reliable Dell as a brand is in the social media world.

Listen, Admit, Change and Learn

Admitting to mistakes and initiating a change for the better don’t mean that your business is a failure. It means you are willing to hear your consumers’ voice and improve even when you are doing well. Wholefoods integrated all that into its Twitter, which was set up as their online customer service platform.