Avoiding Common Social Media Mistakes

Social media can be a great adjunct to your article marketing campaign, but like anything else, it has its potential for faux pas.

Don’t kid yourself – it’s not just rookies who make social media mistakes! Many very experienced social networking gurus have made them too. Paying more attention to how you are perceived online will only help you build your network and grow your business.

(5) Common Social Media Mistakes to Avoid:

1. Resist the temptation to respond to every negative comment made about you or your article or post. – don’t defend yourself. Let your faithful readers do that for you. Don’t engage in a war of words, you’ll just look defensive. Take the higher ground.
2. Avoid Tweeting or Facebooking only links to your blog, your latest accomplishments or those of your company. It makes you look like a braggart! No one wants to hear about how great you are all of the time. Make sure your postings are adding value to the conversation. Take time to provide an insightful tidbit of information or praise the accomplishments of others. If you were conversing with someone face to face you wouldn’t constantly talk about yourself, would you? Treat places like Twitter and Facebook as you would a table full of your friends. Listen – and contribute when you really have something to say!
3. Don’t follow 8,000 people that have no connection in anyway. Quality is way better than quantity. This is true on two fronts. You don’t need to have 35,000 followers to be heard. It’s the quality of your followers that counts. Follow good people and good people will follow. Engage with those people and you will be heard. Quality is also more important in your posts. It’s much better to post one or two quality items per day than 15 really boring ones!
4. Stop constantly asking people to retweet or “favorite” things. No one likes to be told what to do! If someone likes your post, they’ll tell other people. But if you keep bugging them to do it – no one will.
5. You don’t need to sign up for every social media networking tool available. If you do this, you’re almost guaranteeing that you’ll never really connect with anyone. Pick one or two and really work them. Concentrate on building your network in one or two places, rather than dipping your toe in the water of many.

With all of the new technology and various Internet tools constantly coming our way, it’s impossible to avoid all of the potential pitfalls! But if you use common courtesy, and consider what you would like to read before you post something, you’ll find yourself making connections that mean something to you and your business.

Posted by Marc, Communications Manager

Ezines Blogging

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Posted by Judy MacEachran

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