In a few previous posts we’ve talked about the ways that social media can benefit your small business. If you missed our previous discussions you can learn more here and here. Today, we’re going to talk about some of the ways that social media can hurt your small business and how to avoid these pitfalls. We regularly update our staff on these topics and thought if it's good for your inventory management system, then it's probably good for you!
If you’ve been following our tips you have a well-designed online marketing plan and have taken steps to ensure that your business posts project the brand image that you are trying to create for your company. You know which acronyms to pepper your posts with, and which ones to avoid. The big question is are you following those same guidelines in your personal posts? I myself like politics and will sometimes post my opinion. That's not always the smartest thing to do considering I work for an online company with a high profile product like our inventory management system.
The illusion of online privacy is just that - an illusion. Have you googled yourself lately? If not, take a minute to do that now. We’ll wait for you. We do this regularly when looking for news sources that have covered our inventory management system. You want to be sure you see the good and the bad when it comes to how you're perceived online.
Okay, now we’re back. What did you find? Hopefully the news was all good, but many people will be surprised by what they find. Google will turn up all sorts of things that people have posted in blogs using your name. I was recently helping one of my sons with his homework and googled several family members to gather data for his project. I was shocked to find court documents from a lawsuit my grandparents filed against American Motor Corporation in the 1960’s and a picture of my mother when she was the cover model for a special Valentine’s Day insert in the 1954 Charleston Gazette. Both of these events took place long before the invention of the internet, and yet here they are. There are people who spend their days inputting data just like this into computers for just this reason, so that it will be accessible to people all over the world. Most of the time, it’s great. It was really cool to see a picture of my mom when she was young. When I called to ask her about it she couldn’t even remember being part of the photoshoot but she was happy to see the picture as well. Othertimes, the things that come up are incidents that you wish had stayed buried. Get in any trouble when you were younger? Those records may be searchable online. Bad fashion choices in the past? You can bet someone is going to post those for a laugh.
Do you have a personal Facebook account? You should definitely be mindful of what you post. Not only the business owner but all store employees can be found on Facebook if they have profiles. It's one reason we limit what the general public knows about who actually works at Canvus to support your online inventory management solution. You can be undermine all of your good business PR if you contradict your corporate image with your personal profile posts. Be sure that you are maintaining a consistent image online. If you business is family friendly, keep you personal posts family friendly as well. We highly recommend using privacy settings to protect your information. Unless you are 100% confident that you are comfortable with your customers reading your posts and seeing all of your pictures you might to keep those things private so that only your Facebook friends can view them.
Speaking of those friends….you might want to have a talk with others regarding how they portray you online. All of your precautions are for naught if your friends and neighbors are tagging you in their wide-open unprotected statuses. It’s okay to tell your friends that you would rather they not post pictures of you online and skip tagging you in their politically or socially charged messages. If they are good friends they will understand and respect the fact that you have to maintain a professional image online for the sake of your business.
Everyone is entitled to a private life, but in today’s media savvy world very few of us are actually living one. So much of what we say and do ends up online. We can’t help you keep your private life private, but we can help you find more time to get out there and enjoy it. Trust Stockpile for all your inventory management needs. Our solution is designed specifically for small businesses, but we are ready to grow with your company. Need to track items within a single location? Stockpile can do that. When you’re ready to track items across multiple locations Stockpile can handle that too. Looking for full reporting functionality? Stockpile’s got it. Tax time will be a breeze with Stockpile. You can access the business data that you need anytime from anywhere. Forget an important inventory document on the way to your accountant’s office? No problem. You can access our online inventory management tool from your mobile phone and reprint what you need. When it comes to inventory management tasks, our online inventory management system has you covered. So get Stockpile, and get on with the rest of your life.
