Using Social media, like any other business tool, requires a strategy. You’ve posted thousands of updates, tweets, photos and videos in order to build your personal brand and also grow your social network so why jeopardize your “friendships” and alienate your followers? There’s no doubt that almost everyone has posted a tweet, photo, or facebook update that they’ve then taken back, deleted, or removed, however, you do need to keep in mind that once sent your update is out there and in many ways can never be completely taken back. So, what can you do to reduce the number of folks that unfollow you or, even worse, reduce alienating people and flat out annoying them? The following are some of the practices on Twitter and facebook that have been proven to “tick people off” that you may want to avoid doing:
- Direct Message people for following you – Sure it’s very nice that you appreciate the fact that have elected to follow you on Twitter, however, there’s no need to auto-DM me with a personal greeting, in fact, if you do I will definitely promptly unfollow you!
- Event live tweeting -updates from a conference, meetup, concert or other event are cool and interesting so keep them up, however, if you take it upon yourself to try and convey everything that is taking place and posting 5-10 tweets per minute for several hours you’ll simply annoy everyone and definitely scare aware loads of followers
- Photos from the tropics – Ok, we get it and it’s cool but I’m stuck in the rain, snow and sleet so beyond your initial photo upon landing to update me that you’ve gone on vacation, save all the beach photos and posts about how rough your day on the beach was and maybe drop them in a gallery when you get back rather than at 15 minute intervals for 2 weeks solid.
- Using the term “Tweet” in a twitter name and stating in your profile that you happen to be a social media expert, Names like @GlennTweets etc… are redundant and we all get that this is your twitter account. We also recognize that social media has been an important part of your business and perhaps your job but guess what, it’s an important tool for almost everyone so get over it. You likely use gmail as well but are you a Google Expert?
- Inspirations – OK, you get inspired by those little motivational memes or perhaps the Dalai lama has changed your life – guess what though, nobody cares!
- Random updates – Vague messages with no context like “walked the dog” “just ate dinner…” etc… are so 2008 and have no place on a social media stream, sorry!
- Using acronyms that nobody knows – business may want to keep this one in mind. I suggest spelling the entire word and providing the acronym in parenthesis
- Complaining about things that are awesome -Whining because you’ve only lost 45 lbs and not the 50 lbs you’ve been striving for won’t get you any sympathy
- Posting song lyrics – ya, we all love “Stairway to Heaven” but we also all know the words so just save it.
- Posting in the Third person – ummm Glenn’s gonna blow up… OK, say no more!
- Shared profiles – Am I engaging with you or your spouse… this one is very confusing!
- Repost this – Ending a tweet or status update with “everyone please share and/or repost” comes across as rather demanding and guess what, if you share something that truly is helpful people will share it
- Workout bragging – I’m on the sofa watching 9 hours of football and on my 6th beer and 2nd bag of potato chips so sharing that you’ve just secured a personal best 45 minutes for that 10K run and now jumping in the pool for the second time today is gonna end our friendship fast!
- Follow Friday… it’s kind of old really!
- The “I’m in a Great Relationship” Brag or on the business side, the “I Love my boss and job” brag… Congrats on that but Puhleeeeaze, we all just want to Gahk!
Image credit: Huffington Post
This according to the HuffPost:
To be un-annoying, a Facebook status typically has to be one of two things:
1) Interesting/Informative
2) Funny/Amusing/Entertaining
Disclaimer, I’m @gletham on Twitter and go ahead and drop me a comment. I don’t claim in any way, shape or form to be any kind of social media expert, rather, I am a user of various social media services. I have in the past been annoying and have scared away followers ;0)
Want more tips on social annoyances? Try this
So, what annoys you or drives you to unfollow?