Running your own business Facebook account? Here are a few tips to keep your act clean and polished.
SPELLING
Nothing will pull a brand down faster than poor spelling. If you’re not 100% rock-solid that your spelling and grammar are perfect, pop your post in Word or on a blank email page and run it through a spelling and grammar program.
FULL STOPS
Please use full stops as you would in a normal sentence.Without them, the brand’s reputation can suffer – fast.
NB: the only time you don’t have to write full stops is either when you are:
· Making a statement (As I have just done)
· Writing a small amount of text over an image (this is more of a graphic design issue and is not a solid rule, but sometimes we just want less clutter. Speak to your graphic designer if you are ever concerned.)
PUNCTUATION MARKS
Do not use more than one question or exclamation mark.
· “Yes!!!!!!!!!!” We get it. You’re excited. Once is enough.
· “What do you mean???????????” This will be interpreted as though you are A: stupid; B: angry or holding some emotion that is difficult to ascertain on the Internet.
ALL CAPITALS
The use of perhaps one word or two words at different parts of a sentence can be quite effective in a Facebook post. Please do not use several ‘ALL CAP’ words as it will seem like you are yelling or very distressed. And we wouldn't want that.
Totally acceptable: “We’ve had so much FUN with our teacher Stephanie today. Isn’t this a great pic? Click the LIKE button if you agree!” This is fun, enticing and gets people to like the page.
Not acceptable: “We are ABSOLUTELY HANGING OUT FOR THE HOLIDAYS AT THE END OF THE TERM.” This will look like you think the teacher is Hitler. Don’t do this.
APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE
Generally speaking, depending on your style guide, I advise the following:
Casual language is acceptable. However ‘casual’ means how you’d speak to a friend, but perhaps with their parents listening! Casual, but not sounding rough, rude, offensive or overly cheeky.
Wording: if your key demographic was 12 to 18-year-old females, words such as “awesome” and “cool” are probably acceptable. However, words that are too casual such as “wicked” or even tongue-in-cheek expressions such as “totes” (totally) are not recommendable. Avoid:
· Swear words
· Cheap spelling tricks that make you all look like idiots: “Yesssssssssssssssssssssss”
· SMS shorthand: “R U all coming along to the end of term party? Gr8, we can’t W8”. You are not Shane Warne.
GENERAL TONE
Please keep the tone professional, yet casual. Try to adhere to the same tone throughout the page.
FACEBOOK GUIDELINES
I suggest that anyone posting on Facebook thoroughly reads Facebook’s policies: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php
Here's the thing: as you are simply posting a comment about your brand (on Facebook), you should be fine. You should only run into problems if you promised a reward for people liking or sharing your post.
SEO
To make your images visible to Google, you have to name them correctly. Make a basic attempt to label your photo with real words that have something to do with your brand or subject matter:
· Not good: RJ7893456.jpg
· Good: Red Kettle.jpg; SABA Stephanie.jpg; Brown Leather Boots.jpg; Physio.Canberra.jpg