Saturday, June 23, 2012

7 Social Media Pet Peeves and Their Fixes


Authorizing Twitter to RT your post


When I want to retweet a post of yours and see your social media plugin asking me to authorize it to tweet, I click out and never RT any posts from your blog.


There are so many easy solutions for this, like using official Twitter button, plugins like Digg Digg or Sharebar so I see no reason why would I allow any type of application to mess with my account for you (no matter how safe the application is).


You have too many options


Adding plugins that display 15 and more different sharing options on your blog looks ugly, it is annoying and it won’t bring you anything, really.


People use a handful of social sites to share what they like and depending on your niche/location/goals, you can probably pick 3 or 4 that work the best. Keep a limited number of buttons on your posts because that way you give people less options and focus on sites that matter.


There is no conversation


No matter which site you use, it is still called social media, stress on Social! Don’t just keep feeding your blog RSS as the only updates to your profile. That is just so old school.


If you don’t have time for Twitter, delete your profile, what is the point of having it anyway!? It will only take you 5 minutes a day, if that much, to make your profile look friendly and professional by simply saying hi to someone or thanking someone for sharing your content.


No reply on Facebook


This is becoming my pet peeve #1. Example, one of the fitness girls I am a fan of. She has a Facebook page with thousands of fans, posts photos of her workouts or supplements she is taking and every such photo gets at least 20 comments, majority being “Can you tell us the breakdown of that workout” or “What is your experience with that supplement”.


But you can never see her reply to any of those questions nor can you see her having any reaction to anything going on on her page after posting a photo.


People are there because they like you and what you (or your company) is doing. Answer their questions!


Find us on social media


I can not remember how many times have I seen a Twitter or Facebook button on a TV commercial or printed ad, where it says “Find us on Twitter/Facebook”. However, that would be all. No username, no shortened link, no link, nothing at all.


I can understand Starbucks doing such thing (not sure they are, but this is just an example), but if you are “Joe exterminator”, do you really think that is going to be effective!?


Same thing with random people, for example a friend of mine posting on Facebook the other day, “If you are using Instagram, follow me”… ummmm, OK, and you are “Thyj98″ or “Friend543″ or “momsgirl”?


Add your usernames or links when you are inviting people to follow you!


Same message all over the place


Please stop scheduling same updates, to go out at the same time, to your Twitter, Facebook page and Facebook profile. That is annoying and you are not giving people a reason to follow you on more than one of those sites.


If you are thinking: “But I can’t do all of those social media sites, I am short of time”, I am calling BS. Do them right, or don’t do them at all! It is your business and reputation in stake, not mine.


Not following your own advice


I will just give you one example. A big Twitter user (great tweets by the way) tweets about how your message should be much shorter than 140 characters to allow space for retweeting. Great advice, I hit retweet and guess what – too long to retweet…