White Hat Social Media

The Baby Photographer

Published on Thursday, 28 March 2013 15:00

Last Updated on 27 March 2013

Michael Shilling

1 Comment

There are certain ways to behave on social media site that aren’t cool. Being a bit of a Catfish (love that show) would be an example, as would being a complete and utter idiot who spends their time making other people’s lives miserable.

If you are running your own business then it goes without saying that having a reputation as a cyber bully isn’t going to be best PR move you’ve ever made. with that in mind, how should be behave online?

If you’re going to be a good boy or girl and end up with lots of lovely things this Christmas then being a White Hatter is a good way to go.

Here’s a few questions that should be considered if you are going to be white hat social media type of person. It’s not just a guide for how to behave, but what sort of content you should be sharing or creating.

Quality content

Is the content you write or share well researched and well written? Does it have high quality images that aren’t stolen from other people’s website without their permission?

Is the content useful and relevant to your audience?

Is it easy to others to share?

Well monitored profiles

How often do you check your profiles for interaction? Do you have alerts set up?

Have you got the right tools in place to monitor your social profiles?

Consistency

Is your brand consistent throughout your social media profiles?

Are your logos, avatars and bios all up to date?

Not all profiles have to be identical but you want each profile to be easily identifiable as you or your brand.

Platform specific content

Even if you intend to share the same content on various different social media platforms you have to keep in mind that certain content, images for example, appears in different ways on different social media sites. They all crop images in different ways and they all have different maximum sizes.

If you are going to share the same image in different ways then consider customizing it to best fit each platform. There isn’t really a universal aspect ratio or size that is best so consider which platforms are good form sharing square images, which ones are good for sharing larger images etc.

Be Personal and personable

Are you using Social Media to connect with your clients on a more personal level whilst still being professional?

Be Authentic

If you are not authentic and transparent then you will get found out and in the best case scenario people will just ignore you. In the worst case scenario people will declare war on your falseness and start an online campaign against you and your wild claims of awesomeness (or whatever). You could get taken to court, become bankrupt, loose your home and your sense of wellbeing. Be forced to live a life on the streets shouting at passers-by.

Like I said, worst case scenario.

Subscribe to the Memory Gate Training newsletter

About Michael Shilling