7. Don’t: React rashly or aggressively to comments
When a mean or offensive comment pops into your social media feed, it can be tempting to retaliate. Responding quickly and aggressively may make you feel good in the moment, but will likely have a negative impact on your entire social media presence. Once something is out on social media, it is out there forever, so be very careful of what you say. Especially when interacting on a public platform, these comments can be seen by a large number of people, negatively affecting your brand and its image on a wider scale than you may have intended.
8. Do: Take time to cool off and respectfully respond
Instead of responding to a negative comment as soon as it rolls into your feed, take a few minutes to step away from social media and breathe. If something appears that is threatening or elicits a hostile reaction, take yourself out of the situation and put some space between yourself and social media. Once you feel you have gained composure, go back and respectfully respond to the negative comment. If the comments rolling in are extremely negative or hostile, reporting them to the social media platform is a safe way to resolve the issue without getting involved.
9. Don’t: assume your content is optimized for each social platform
Posting content to numerous social media platforms is a common practice, but just because it looks good on one posting site doesn’t mean it will look the same on the rest. While many social media platforms may seem similar, there can be small differences that dramatically affect the presentation of your content. For example, a post may look perfect on Facebook, but after copying it to several other platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, the image may become skewed or cropped, showing only certain parts of the image. Long story short, don’t assume that your post will look the same on every social platform just because it looks good on one.
10. Do: Check posts on each social platform before posting
Check your posts on each social platform before posting. Looking to see how each image shows up on various platforms ensures that your content will be portrayed in the way you wish to have it. Although it may be slightly more time consuming, going through to find the posting style that works best for each platform can help avoid mistakes and make the process much smoother.