Elisa Pequini  |  @lipequini  

The hardest part about starting social media for your business is that there is no manual - each business is different and should have a customized strategy.  But  there are some common sense rules that should be used by all businesses that choose to be on social media platforms. With that in mind we created a little Facebook etiquette guide for businesses to teach you how to keep your fans happy.

You got your clients to "like" you. Now follow these steps and make sure you keep them by following these rules:

1. Respond to your fans

It might seem obvious, but you have to respond to questions and complaints. We are not telling you to respond to every comment, just to the ones that require a response. Many businesses don't do interact in this way because they do not want to sort through 500 comments. But guess what? You have to. If you want to be on social media, responding is essential to keep your customers happy. And nobody said that was easy.

2. Do not send your customers to another outlet unless extremely necessary

If I am asking you a question on Facebook, it means I do not want to call your call center. Your customers feel the same way. So our recommendation is: respond on Facebook as much as you can. We know sometimes it is not possible to respond publicly to a complaint because you might need more personal information from the client. But in those cases you can just tell them how sorry you are and ask them to send their information over e-mail to get the situation resolved quickly. If you can't respond to them on Facebook, at least keep the conversation online.

3. Watch your tone and be careful with excesive exclamation points

It is hard to know the tone of what one is saying when you are reading it. But you can try to be as polite as possible. Saying "we are so sorry",  "thank you" and "we are going to do everything to fix this" is always better than "We apologize for the inconvenience." Your customers are online but they expect to interact with humans, not machines.

Also, be careful with the abuse of exclamation points. You are not a teenager, you are a company. Act like one.

4. Do not post too much...

Posting too much = spamming. Two posts per day is more than enough to be seen, and only post a third one if extremely necessary. If you start posting too much, your fans will visit your Facebook page for sure - to "unlike" it.

5. ...But post enough and don't forget to monitor

Don't make a Facebook page and just forget that it exists because it is not growing as you hoped it would. Patience is a virtue. Interact, post relevant content, advertise your page on your other social media, and they will come.

And keep monitoring, even if you have only 20 fans on your page. Those are 20 people that took the time to go "like" your business. They deserve attention.

 

If you follow these 5 simple rules, your Facebook fans may not start saying how polite you are, but they will appreciate it by remaining your fans. Your customers still may complain about other things on your page, but not about your manners.