6 Tips to Help Avoid Social Media Trouble

When it comes to marketing your business and establishing a visible online presence, Facebook and other social media platforms are absolutely necessary. With more people spending time at home scrolling news feeds than ever before, social media has only become even more integral in building connections. While being active on social media can help your business, it can also have very serious consequences if you’re not cautious. We recommend you follow these basic online etiquette tips to avoid social media trouble:

Avoid all lightning rod topics. Those include politics, religion, race, or any other polarizing topic. You can and should express your opinion. But there are right and wrong ways to do this, and certain topics that should always be avoided. The country is very divided politically, and alienating a group of potential customers isn’t the smartest business move. We recommend avoiding political or religious commentary all together on social media.

Don’t be biased or insensitive to others. The current events in the United States have elevated discussions on racism. While it’s important to have these discussions, we must exercise extreme caution and choose our words carefully - even a comment with the best intentions can be misinterpreted by others. Ask yourself “how might this be perceived by others?” before posting anything.

The new Golden Rule: nothing is private. Our digital tools give us a false sense of privacy. Despite available “privacy” settings, anyone who is in your “circle of trust” can take a screenshot of a private post and share it. Never post a comment, photo, or video on the internet unless you’re comfortable with it going public - the internet never forgets! Better to avoid posting something questionable in a private group than to have to backpedal yourself out of something you said once it goes public.

Separate the business and the personal. Yes, real estate is a personal business. When many of your clients are referrals from family, friends, and everyday acquaintances, it makes it difficult to separate your business life from your personal life. But remember, real estate is still a business, and it’s best to make every effort possible to treat it as such. This means having a separate, business-only account for every social media platform.

Exercise caution with every click. It’s not just a post on your own Facebook page that can cause trouble. Comments on comments, photos, the use of emojis, or even an innocuous humorous remark could be viewed as offensive by anyone who can see it. We’re living in a time where thoughts and images are scrutinized more than usual, and just one click could have very serious consequences.

Be nice. Believe it or not, the original Golden Rule still applies. That isn’t to say that you can’t disagree with someone or have your own opinions, but if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all (yep - we went there). Keeping the content of your posts on the high road - positive and professional, caring and kind - is always a good idea.