How to humanise your social media accounts

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Oct 6, 2017 / by
How to humanise your social media accounts

When scrolling through your Twitter timeline, you wouldn’t be the first person to question the nature of humanity. It often seems like posts are published by robots, rather than real human beings.

Although it’s called social media, it doesn’t feel social when everyone is simply broadcasting promotional content, rather than interacting with people like real human beings.

If you’ve been publishing one-way social media content and are wondering why you’re not getting the success you desire, it’s probably because your posts and interactions are devoid of humanity.

LinkedIn expert Viveka von Rosen says:

Keep your personality in your interaction, whether it be on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, whatever. Be human. Be recognizable. Allow your voice, your face, your interactions to be recognizable just by the way you say hello.

Show the real you

It’s okay to post the occasional glossy professional photo on social media, but if this is the only type of image you post then it comes across as unnatural. Not everything has to be rehearsed – people like to know the real people who are working on the products and services that they enjoy. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk is constantly posting images and video content of his company’s employees.

Virgin balloonRichard Branson is another good example of a CEO who conducts himself like a real human on social media. On his Twitter timeline you’ll find plenty of promotional content about his books and about Virgin, but you’ll gain some interesting insights about him as a person too. He shows images of himself in unusual locations and regularly reposts content which correlate with his political views. By sharing these insights, this humanizes the Virgin brand (as well as his own).

Interact with people

Brands often don’t enter into as many discussions as they could because the person at the helm is scared of misrepresenting the brand or saying the wrong thing. While it’s not a good idea to be brazen on social media, it’s totally okay to have conversations in a human manner.

Social media should be used to solve customer service enquiries. If you were meeting with a customer service representative in real life, you’d expect to have a two-way dialogue with another person. On Twitter or Facebook, it should be exactly the same. By taking the time to read enquiries and by going the extra mile to ensure your customers (or potential customers) are satisfied, you’ll boost your brand’s reputation.

Be considerate

It’s okay to promote your products and services on social media, but it’s not okay if that’s all you do. Cultivating a sense of community around your brand is essential, and the only way you can do that is if you commit to delivering value. When people post about their experiences with your brand, retweet or regram them to show you’re listening.

Also, ask your customers a question once in awhile to help boost engagement and to promote a friendly feel. Once Gary Vaynerchuk asked his audience on social media if they needed anything. One person said he required eggs and before he knew it, a delivery man showed up with multiple cartons! This kind of behaviour is quintessentially human, and will endear you to your customers, and cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence.

Conclusion

It’s worth noting that 71% of people who have had a positive experience with a company on social media will recommend it to their friends. Behaving like a human, considering the needs of others and offering value will give people a positive experience – ruthlessly promoting yourself with no concern about your audience will not!

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