Business vs. Professionals Use of Social Networks
As of today, many use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to promote their companies for business/professional reasons, but what is the difference between people who use these kinds of social media platforms for strictly personal use?
Facebook for Professionals
When they first create a Facebook account, people start posting about their hobbies and passions. Sharing everything about what is happening in their lives and seeing what their friends and families are going through becomes the main reason for them to keep logging in and visiting other people’s profiles. Nobody really pays attention to the kind of content that they are posting, because it is considered to be some sort of online journal in which we can talk about ourselves and let people know who we are and how busy our days are.
If companies create a Facebook page, however, they can’t decide whether they want to post something about their last night out or something about the actual business. It is indeed obvious that they should share information, pictures or videos on what they do as a company, their services or products.
Someone that uses his/her Facebook profile professionally has to be careful about what he/she posts, because the page becomes some sort of resume that employers and co-workers can access to and it would never be a great situation if your boss knew how unprofessional you look in that video of your drunk-singing experience, right? 😉
Instagram for Professionals
Whenever we use social media in a personal way, we might just want to get likes and feel appreciated, we don’t need people to know what we can offer as workers and we can disconnect ourselves from professional life. People can go out, and post pictures of what they love the most without thinking that they are promoting something. Instagram becomes automatically an interactive platform for people to see how well we are doing, how nice the weather is, how we like to eat and dress, what kind of books we read or even the activities we love the most.
We have fun with filters and comments, but companies can’t do that. They are not allowed to add twenty different hashtags under a picture or post something every few minutes, because that would just be annoying. What they can do is advertise and explain what they can offer as a business to their potential consumers.
The bio and the profile picture both change depending on what we use the account for. Someone who owns a company will most likely use its logo as a profile and will post a description and probably a link to the official website, but someone with their own private profile will mostly write something related to their lives, such as quotes, their personal data or hobbies.
It is also incredibly important to know what kind of pictures people can post on their profiles. Just like on Facebook, people would not be interested in knowing what you ate last night, especially if you post it on the profile of your company that might have nothing to do with food.
Twitter for Professionals
A few hashtags, just like on Instagram, might really help your small business to be found more easily by potential clients that look for something specific. If you start adding #something that has nothing to do with what you sell, then people might think that you are not as professional as you think you are. Why would a sports shop tag their pictures with words like “foodie”?
Whenever a company or a professional uses their account in a professional way, they need to create a marketing strategy in order to reach as many people as they can, but that rule does not apply to people who spend their days talking about their favourite TV shows or singers.
This platform is useful if a company wants to promote its brand and connect to people.
In conclusion, there are different rules to follow for a business or personal use of these three social networks. First of all, being professional is a must when you need to promote yourself or your company to someone that has the power and the ways to make you become an employee or a company that deserves a place in the business world. Everything that is unprofessional or simply too personal, should never be posted on what is related to a job.
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