Social media is becoming a powerful marketing and communications tool for some small businesses. As users of sites such as Twitter continue to increase businesses are gaining access to a growing community of potential consumers.
BBB uses Twitter to provide real time updates on events, scams and other items that might be of interest to our Accredited Businesses, Consumers and non-Accredited Businesses that want to stay informed.
There are thousands of online resources available to help you better understand and assess whether or not using social media is of benefit to your business. Over the coming year BBB hopes to provide you with links to some of the resources we find useful and to help you avoid becoming a victim of frauds and scams related to social media.
5 Mistakes to Never Make on Twitter The following tips have been summarized from the following resource:
http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/5-mistakes-to-never-make-on-twitter-jennifer-van-grove 1. Never only partially fill out your Twitter Profile. It is important to ensure that your business' Twitter Profile is complete as the information contained in your profile is what is used to identify you and establish your credibility.
2. Never forget that you are always "on." Regardless of how formal or informal your Tweets are you need to think about your audience and how they are perceiving the message you are sending out.
3. Never delete a Tweet. If you make a mistake in your Tweet try using Twitter to correct it, or follow up with a correction rather than simply deleting the entire Tweet. In reality deleted "mis-Tweets" are still accessible for people to read.
4. Never Tweet for Shock Value. Using Twitter for shock value may create a short-term buzz about your business, but over the long term Twitter is most effective as an ongoing communications tool.
5. Never abuse Hashtags. Hashtags allow you to append a trending topic to your Tweet in hopes of generating extra interest or encouraging additional views of your Tweet. Hashtag spam occurs when you append a trend topic that has nothing to do with the topic of your Tweet. Never abuse hashtags, as doing so threatens to ruin your reputation and credibility.
BBB is on Twitter. If you or your business uses Twitter, the BBB wants to follow you to help build your Twitter network!
Likewise, help BBB build our Twitter network. If you’re out there in the “Twitterverse” please say hello to us by replying to @VIBBB.