Monday, July 30, 2018

10 Ways to Wreck Your Social Media Presence


by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

For writers today, an online presence can mean the difference between success and failure. But if we’re not doing it right, we may be our own worst enemy. 

10 Ways to Wreck Your Social Media Presence 

1. You have an inconsistent social media presence—I’m not talking about taking weekends off. I'm referring to the necessity of spending consistent time building your online presence. This includes showing up on Twitter and Facebook with reasonable regularity, and keeping a regular schedule for your blog posts.

2. You over-promote—The promotion I’m talking about is SELF promotion. Use Edie’s 5 to 1 rule—for every 5 social media updates, you’re allowed one additional update about yourself.

3. Your website doesn’t have social share buttons—I don’t know how much time I’ve spent on sites looking for twitter handles or trying to follow them on Facebook. Most people won’t spend more than three seconds. If they can't find additional information, you've lost a connection.

4. You engage in incorrect hashtag usage—Hashtags are great, and using them CORRECTLY can net you a lot of new followers. But correctly means no more than 2 per Twitter update. And between 25 and 30 for Instagram.

5. You use auto-responders—Is there anyone out there who likes to talk to computers? Not me. Beyond that, we’re a pretty savvy group. We can tell an auto-respond message from a real one.

6. You’re obsessed with the numbers—Social Media growth takes time. And the key to growth is AUTHENTIC CONNECTIONS. Shortcuts bring more trouble than help. As long as you’re seeing healthy interaction, you’re doing well.

7. You don’t utilize a scheduling program correctly—Personally I prefer Hootsuite, but Buffer is all an excellent option. However the rules have changed. Using a scheduling program on Facebook will cost you visibility. Use it for Twitter, but avoid scheduling anything for Facebook. 

8. You’re guilty of hogging the stream—This means you post three or more updates in a row. You’ll find that behavior will encourage people to unfollow and unfriend you in droves. Spread out your updates and keep your connections happy.

9. You try out every new platform that appears—No one can do everything well. Focus your energy on two or three programs. Have a user name for all the big ones, but concentrate your time on a couple.  Focus, focus, focus.

10. You add people to groups and group messages—This one is personal for me. I get very tired of being added to things without being asked. I’ll give anyone a pass for the first slip, but after that, I will immediately unfollow anyone who does it a second time.

Now it’s your turn, what turns you off when it comes to social media? Is there something that leads you to immediately sever a connection? Share, so we can all see things from a different perspective.

Don’t forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,

14 comments:

  1. Can you use hashtags in blogging? If so, how many is not good?

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    1. Jackie, no. Not hashtags in blogging. Hashtags are for social media only. Blessings, E

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  2. This is great info--I'm always looking to improve myself social-mediawise. :D

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  3. Thank you for these pointers. I will try to incorporate them into my work.

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  4. I'll need to work on this. Facebook hasn't been my friend, I can very well say, and I don't do lots of other stuff. Hmmm

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    1. Donevy, there are very few who enjoy facebook. Find something you do like and hang out there. Blessings, E

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  5. Edie, you don't know how happy I am to hear your opinion about auto-responders. Every time I read an article discussing them as a necessary marketing strategy, I feel like I should have auto-responders...and I feel like a slacker because I haven't set them up. Now I'm not going to. Thank you!

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    1. Karen, I read those articles too. Then I look at how successful auto-responders are with me and my fellow writers. And the answer is not at all. Looking at the actual real-life experiences tells me we should NOT be using them! Blessings, E

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  6. I have and like autoresponders for people who sign up to my email list, so I hope that isn't the autoresponder you're referring to.

    I think (hope?) you're meaning social media autoresponders, which I think ignore the purpose of social media - that it is social.

    One author I follow has recently started sending me automated "Hi! How's your day going?" messages via Facebook Messenger. I ignore them, because they are spam. I use Messenger all the time for real conversations, so I hope these fake ones don't catch on.

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    1. Iola, yes, thank you for the clarification. I have a two-part authentication/response for email sign ups. That's how I give out my freebies for signing up. This article is about social media and the author responders I refer to are on social media - like the one sent by that author. Thanks for helping me clear up any confusion! Blessings, E

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