1. Try to sell them something. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly acceptable to make money using social media – a lot of people are doing it quite successfully. However, there’s very much a right way and a wrong way in going about it. For instance, you will absolutely have a losing campaigns if all of your tweets and status updates read like this…”Have you heard about the latest Trump MLM opportunity? Get in while you can!” or “Try the teeth whitening solution that uses sunlight to bleach your teeeth. Click here to learn more”. Hint” DON’T DO THAT!
2. Not interacting with your friends/followers. If you believe social media is a platform for you to spew about your knowledge or experience without engaging your audience, you will have an audience of ONE. There are instances when it’s OK to distribute a video or blog article to express your views, however don’t make a habit of doing this without interacting with your friends/followers. People are using social media because they want to interact, so make a point to encourage comments and feeback to make it more of a two way conversation.
3. Not posting enough. It’s not enough to create a social media account and then post updates or interact when you feel like it. People will think you’re not taking social media seriously and that you’re not interested in developing a relationship with them. You want to use social media to build relationships, and you can best accomplish this by posting updates at least once per day (I encourge at least 3 per day) and engaging with your friends/followers.
4. Posting too much. I know, I know…too little, too much…too many rules! Stay with me here because this will save you a lot of wasted time and energy. If you believe posting 20 times on Facebook and 100 times on Twitter per day will help you win friends, you’re in for a rude awakening. For one, your friends are likely to become annoyed with the frequent posts and will ‘unfriend’ and ‘unfollow’ you. And if you post too much you’re running a serious risk of getting kicked off the sites by the Administrators. So as a general rule of thumb, you’re safe to post 3-5 times per day on your social media accounts.
5. Being inauthentic. Social media is designed for people to interact and to get to know you. Don’t abuse this by being someone you’re not. If you’re conservative, be conservative and express yourself in a way that you’re most
comfortable. If you’re outrageous, then be outrageous and express yourself through crazy videos. People will see right through you if you attempt to be someone you’re not and that’s the quickest way to lose credibility and trust.
Thanks for this post!! I have almost 6,500 followers (you being one of them) in my account...
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Craig, so right on! I think people need to take this as a prerequisite test for joining Social Media sites lol…Very important points, especially 1 & 2, unfortunately missed by many.
Gr8 tips! Thanks for posting ‘em!
FluffBoy is looking forward to meeting up with Roxy by the Intercoastal!
L the best my brother!!
laz
Good content and so accurate. Thank you for the input.-UberCoach
Hi Craig
Really liked this post especially the title. I totally agree with content but how do you create meaningful personal relationships and interaction when you have a large number of followers? It’s something to ponder as my followers list increases…..
Yvette,
Thanks for the comment and the great question. In order to manage your ever increasing number of followers, you really need to use a third party Twitter client. There are I couple I use, but my preference is Tweetdeck. I created a video on my blog to demonstrate how I manage conversations and keep track of my followers. Feel free to click this link to access that blog post: http://craighcollins.com/?p=239
Hope this helps. See you in the Twittershpere! Craig
Spot on Craig – and good title too. Nigel
Hello Craig,
I am new to social networking and am always looking for tips. Thank you for sharing. Great blog. I began bloging against my will. I figured that I didn’t have the time and that it wouldn’t make a difference in our company. I am happy to say, that is not the way I feel today! I now find myself looking forward to interacting with the people that I have been in touch with. I have learned a lot and made some friends. I find myself checking in on their blogs and wondering what I will find in their next blog. I now see the power of networking and hope to continue making friends, absorbing all types of great information, and passing some along too.
Dawn,
Thank you for sharing. Glad to know you’ve joined the wonderful world of blogging. Look forward to staying in touch and connecting with you more.
Craig
Very good stuff here. Wish everyone would act accordingly, especially #1! Thanks for posting!
Excellent article and I would suggest that people should not forget the word social is the key.
Craig, some excellent points here! I agree completely with all but #4: Posting Too Much.
Absolutely, some people can post way too much, and I have unfollowed/unfriended a number of people — even a few I like very much in real life — for posting in an annoyingly frequent way. But I don’t think the frequency rules are the same for every social media platform. I agree with less than five posts a day to Facebook (I say err on the side of less than that.) And I think it’s a terrible mistake for almost anyone to put their Twitter feeds on Facebook — too many posts, too often, not in the right format or context, etc.
However, I’ve found that on Twitter, the proper frequency of posts really depends on your level of engagement with people and what you’re tweeting about. If you’re having a short back-and-forth conversation, especially with more than one person, I think it’s fine to tweet several things quickly. (If it’s a longer talk, I take it off Twitter or use a hashtag so people know I’m in an official chat like #journchat or #blogchat.)
I respond to everyone who sends me an @ message because I think it would seem rude to ignore them. Some days, I have just a couple of them. Somedays, I have a bunch. Some days, there are several fabulous blog posts that I know my friends/others in my feed will find useful if I tweet those links or I find a bunch of questions from other Twitter users that I can help to answer. To sum up, some days I tweet 2 or 3 times, but other days I might tweet 20 times throughout the day. It just depends on the circumstances.
Otherwise, I think the advice you shared here is right on! Thanks for a useful and thought-provoking post. @kamkansas
Very informative post. I think your top 5 are spot on! You caught me with your catchy Carnegie headline! Thanks for sharing!