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You are here: Home / Social media / Basic Facebook Netiquette: Do’s and Don’ts for Busy Business Owners

Basic Facebook Netiquette: Do’s and Don’ts for Busy Business Owners

October 18, 2012 by Jan Kearney

Facebook – love it or loathe it, it can be a great tool to gather and nurture connections and potential clients.  The temptation is to dive straight in gung-ho and get your name out there as quickly as possible. 

After all, with Facebook reaching a billion users this month, the urge to get a piece of that action can be overwhelming!

Before you dive in and start promoting your business, take a moment to read these Facebook Netiquette guidelines.

Basic Facebook Netiquette Do’s and Don’ts

DoFacebook netiquette do's

  • Create a page for your business
  • Share other people’s content, and acknowledge the source
  • Monitor your posts, both on your profile and page and respond to comments
  • Answer questions posted on your page.  If people wanted to call you or email, they would have done that first…
  • Socialise and mingle, like related pages and introduce yourself
  • Define your boundaries – it’s ok to talk about your business on your profile, but separate your friends into lists so your nearest and dearest aren’t bombarded and annoyed by your updates
  • Remember that you represent your business online.  If you do connect with business contacts on your personal profile, remember that at 3am and resist the urge to post the drunk table dancing pics, or fire off an abusive rant at your ex…

Don’tfacebook netiquette don'ts

  • Update ALL IN CAPS or with a plethora of punctuation!!!1! (see what I did there?)
  • “Invite” people to your groups without asking.  Unlike events, an invite drags people straight into the group, there’s no option to decline
  • Repost the same promotion day in day out, it’s social networking not social selling
  • Promote your page, website, products or services on other people’s pages without permission
  • Repost updates without checking the source – you know the ones , “Facebook are publishing all your private messages” or  “Facebook are a paid platform unless you…”

Do you have any Facebook netiquette tips to add? I’d love your thoughts in the comments…

Basic Facebook Netiquette: Do’s and Don’ts for Busy Business Owners by Jan Kearney
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Filed Under: Social media Tagged With: facebook, social for business, social media, social media for small business

About Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest

Comments

  1. Lisa says

    October 18, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    I’d also add: Don’t tag someone with personal information…personal message them, instead. Don’t write on someone’s wall about plans ’cause what if the person doesn’t know everyone personally and you’re revealing when they are out of town or not at home? 🙂 I also don’t appreciate it when people scrape my content without acknowledging the source, as you described.

    • Jan Kearney says

      October 18, 2012 at 6:43 pm

      Great tips Lisa, thanks for sharing 🙂

  2. Ginny Carter says

    October 18, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    Nice stuff here. I would add ‘telling people you are about to go to bed’, either on a profile or a page (yes, I’ve seen it) 🙂

    • Jan Kearney says

      October 18, 2012 at 6:44 pm

      I never sleep… Good point though Ginny 🙂

  3. Leslie Denning says

    October 18, 2012 at 5:06 pm

    This is a very nice list of do’s and dont’s, and I love lists. It’s such much easier to go down a list that it is to plow through lots of prose. 🙂 I’ll have to look around your site, because I’m not sure what a local business marketing consultant is. I assume you work with brick & mortar to help them get an online presence. Thanks for this post.

    • Jan Kearney says

      October 18, 2012 at 6:45 pm

      Hi Leslie, yes I work with bricks and mortar businesses (mainly) and help them get visible online and integrate it with their traditional marketing too. Thanks for popping in and commenting 🙂

  4. Brenda Spandrio says

    October 18, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    Thanks for the refresher! I need a reminder now and then, as I sometimes get carried away by what I think others are doing to be ‘successful.’ I do want to be successful, but I don’t want to sacrifice integrity to do so!

    • Jan Kearney says

      October 18, 2012 at 6:51 pm

      Hi Brenda, it’s easy to get a bit carried away isn’t it? Be yourself, share, socialise and point people back to your blog. Takes time to build up, but it works 🙂 Thanks for popping in and taking the time to comment.

  5. Galina St George says

    October 19, 2012 at 12:23 am

    Hi Jan,

    A fantastic list of do’s and don’t’s. Enjoyed reading about my pet hates! 🙂 Also reminds me that I need to find time to create a business page, and separate my friends and business contacts into lists.

    It is interesting though – much of it seems like common sense, but still – there are so many businesses which miss the point that Facebook, like all the other networks, is just a way to connect with potential customers, and the way it is done determines how their customers will perceive them in the long term… And still, there are plenty of bulls in the china shop!

    The basics of business relationships are quite simple – similar to personal ones – treat others as you want to be treated yourself. Break this rule, and you are in trouble.

    Love coming to your blog! 🙂

    Galina

    • Jan Kearney says

      October 19, 2012 at 9:39 am

      We all have our pet hates! Love having you visit my blog too, Galina. Thanks for your thoughts 🙂

  6. Bonnie says

    October 22, 2012 at 1:23 am

    Hi Jan,

    I love coming to your blog… always learning something new here!

    I especially dislike the people who want to be friends with me and the first thing they post on my time is, I have a facebook page at blah blah blah… please visit it.

    Tells me instantly they wanted to become friends just to get one more LIKE. Doesn’t take long for me to delete them. 🙂

    – Bonnie

    • Jan Kearney says

      October 24, 2012 at 3:02 am

      Hi Bonnie – I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂 Oh yes, people like that get defriended pretty quickly!

  7. Nanette Levin says

    October 23, 2012 at 9:32 am

    On the ‘don’t’ list, I’d add Like a Page (or friend a person) and immediately start spamming with a private thread about your products/services. You’ve already covered this one but it amazes me when people join a Group and the first thing they do is jump in with a link and pitch without spending a moment getting familiar with the culture. Thanks for another great post, Jan.

    • Jan Kearney says

      October 24, 2012 at 2:59 am

      Hi Nanette – I’m with you on that one. I help moderate a small local group – that consists of deleting ads, warning, finally just gritting my teeth and banning people. The people who post like that don’t contribute let alone look at guidelines. Thanks for popping in again, Nanette. I appreciate it 🙂

Meet Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest or Discover More About My Local Business Online…

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