If you’re a small business owner, it’s easy for your personality to come through on your professional social media accounts. Besides, who wants to have a professional account that is all hum drum and dry, right?
However, it’s also easy to cross the line of sharing too much, being offensive, or crossing a variety of other “lines” that you may or may not even know you’re crossing.
Here are a few easy ways to keep your personal and professional social media accounts separated.
- Be definitive: Only post items that have to do with your business on your business accounts. Period. Don’t mix business and pleasure, as much as you might be inclined to. Did you get a new product in? That belongs on your professional accounts. Did you get a new puppy? That belongs on your personal social media. Are you really mad at a competitor? That may not belong on either your personal or professional pages.
- Realize that separating accounts may not even be enough: Do you live in a community where people know you for what you do professionally? Well, get ready for them to equate the things you say on your personal account with your business, even if you aren’t talking about your business. If you have very strong political views and espouse them on your personal account, someone can use that as a way to perhaps not patronize your establishment. This, of course, is your choice, but know that the situation exists.
- Get a handle on how you share: What platforms are you using to share? If you’re using a social media management app like Hootsuite or Buffer, take the extra second to make sure you’re sharing out the links and photos to the right account. That extra second may make the difference between an embarrassing mistake and a great post.
- Considering removing business accounts from your mobile devices: Can you literally not trust yourself? Then remove the temptation all together. Of course, this is a last resort, but if you feel that you react too strongly or too quickly to people posting on your business pages, you may want to limit your own access.
- The internet is permanent: Even social media platforms, like Snapchat, where media may only be available for a 24 hour period are susceptible to people screencapping and sharing. Anything you put online is going to be permanent one way or another, so be sure you take your time. Just because you can say what your opinion is doesn’t mean that it may be worth losing business because of it.