You won’t like me when I’m angry.
And, here are five social media mistakes that really get me (and the rest of the social media community) angry. If your health care organization is making
these mistakes, follow these simple tips to get on the right track.
1. You don’t have a vanity URL. Does your company’s Facebook page use the default URL assigned to your page when you create it?
Why it’s bad:
There will be times you’ll need to print the link to your Facebook page. There’s no better way to deter people from typing that URL than making the link so
long it looks like a bank account routing number. You need a vanity URL (for example, www.facebook.com/[yourorganizationname]).
Fix:
Once your page reaches 25 fans, go to facebook.com/username to set your vanity URL. This is very important because if you don’t claim your company’s vanity
URL, someone else can claim it.
2. Links on your page open in same window. When you create links to any content on your web site—whether it’s your own internal pages or
external content—and those links drive people to that piece of content in the same window as your page, it’s bad.
Why it’s bad:
You put a lot of effort into getting people to your site—you’ve spent money on lead generation campaigns, pay-per-clic, search engine optimization
campaigns and more and once you get visitors to your site, you’re driving them away before they’re ready to leave.
Fix:
By default, when you create links, they open in the same window unless you manually change this function in your content management system. To fix this,
simply select the option to make links open in a new window. Each content editor is different, but this option can usually be found in the “hyperlink”
section.
3. Playing hide-and-seek to find your social media icons on your website. Creating a social media presence for businesses takes an
investment of time and money, so why would you make your website visitors play “find the birdie” when trying to follow you on Twitter?
Why it’s bad:
The effort you put into creating your social networks is all for naught if the people who visit your website aware of these opportunities to connect with
you.
Fix:
It’s a best practice to place social icons either in the header or footer of your website (and make sure when they click those links, the pages open in new
windows!).
4. Tweets that have links with no context. You just created the world’s best blog post and tweeted the link to your followers without telling
them what was behind the link. No one will click that link. No one.
Why it’s bad:
For all of its attributes, one thing to watch out for on Twitter is spam—bad links that can infect your computer. By prefacing your links, followers know
exactly what they’re getting before they click. Twitter accounts sometimes get compromised, and someone may spam your followers. If your followers know the
format and tone of your posts, they’ll be able to spot when your account’s been hacked immediately, steer clear and let you know about the suspicious
activity. Oh, and tweeting links with no context is bad because it can get your account banned from Twitter.
Fix:
Twitter’s character limit of 140 characters is plenty to give a bit of an introduction to your link, especially if you give yourself more room by using a
URL shortener like Bit.ly.
5. A business that has a Facebook profile page rather than a business page. This one makes me the angriest of all.
Why it’s bad:
This is wrong for many reasons:
-
It’s against Facebook policy and if you’re caught, the account will be deleted, regardless of how many “friends” your company has made.
-
People don’t want companies to see their personal page activity; they just want to get updates. When you’re friends, a company can see all of a person’s
status updates and other personal information.
-
It’s such common knowledge that if you do create a profile page for your business, you look like you’re just implementing Facebook because it’s popular,
rather than knowing exactly how to use it.
Fix:
If you’ve already made this error, you can simply delete the profile page in settings. But, before deleting the profile page, use your real, personal
Facebook profile page to create a new company page (instructions are here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php) and then before deleting the old company profile page,
invite any “friends” you have there, to become a fan of the new company page. (And get that vanity URL as soon as you get to 25 fans or else I’ll be really angry!)
Rosilyn Rayborn
is the social media marketing specialist at EmCare. Her posts are her own and not those of her employer.