list the nine rules of social media engagement. which three are most important and why? course hero

5. Be easy to find (and to follow)

Want to increase your reach and influence? Then you’ll need to increase your number of followers. And the first thing you need to be thinking about is to make it as easy as possible for your potential audience to find you and then, provided you can prove to be of use, of interest and sometimes of amusement, to follow you.

6.Ask questions, start conversations, engage

Well, the easiest way of engaging anyone, be it on the street, bus etc, is to ask questions. Everyone likes to talk about themselves, so give them an audience – use good open questions to get the conversation started and continue the dialogue with more questions and answers just like in the real world.

7. Criticism can be an opportunity

One approach is to use this as an opportunity to learn from your customers, and possibly to attend to the criticism in question so well that reputational damage is neutral or even enhanced by the incident.

8. Sharing is caring (and creates communities)

Sharing is caring, and will position you as a person of authority and influence. So put yourself in the shoes of your customers and think ‘what would they find really useful for me to share’.

LinkedIn: No One Likes a Cold Call

No one likes to receive a cold call out of the blue, and the same is true for random connection requests on LinkedIn. Try to be considerate of peoples’ time (and, perhaps, their foggy memories) by making sure that recipients know who you are, or at least why you think connecting on LinkedIn will result in meaningful value for all parties.

Instagram: Easy on the Hashtags

Hashtags can be fun, but when your Instagram caption full of them runs further down the screen than your photo or video, it’s likely time for an intervention. It’s easy to go overboard with hashtags that come off as boastful, condescending or outright awful. Rule of thumb: Hashtags shouldn’t compete for attention with photos and videos.

Facebook: Set Realistic Expectations

Most people take Facebook way too seriously. It’s out of hand, and I wish it would stop, but the fact (and reason why the site’s so popular) is people are needy and Facebook has a special way of making everyone feel important.