24 Things YOU MUST NOT DO on Social Media
There's heaps of content out there helping you use social media properly and giving you great (and not so great) advice on what to do. But what about what not to do? There are plenty of irksome things that people do on social media and although funny and a bit irritating could more seriously be damaging for your business or brand. List of things YOU MUST NOT DO on social media (for small business people / freelancers - okay for everyone!!)
1. Don't buy fake followers, likes, shares etc.. It messes with your insights and adds no value to your business or to your community.
2. Don't brag about your awards, testimonials and accolades, be humble and remember people care about how you can help them and NOT you!
3. Stop telling everyone what you just had for dinner (unless that is your specialist area.. (I.e you are a cook, you are a nutritionist)
4. Don't spy on competitors social media profiles! It's a time wasting exercise! Just use a comparison tool to grab stats and concentrate on keeping your community happy!
5. Stop posting or sharing content for the sake of it, just because you feel you have to. If it's yawn-some bin it! - Spend time looking for great content or even better creating your own! 6. Don't air your personal laundry on your Facebook or twitter business account - save it for your personal Facebook friends! 7. Stop adding everyone you meet at local networking events to Facebook! You are ruining Facebook for everyone! I do not want to sensor my opinions because you might get upset with my posts! We are not friends we shook hands once, that is what linked in is for. 8. If your spelling is stinky, Just spellcheck your posts, okay? 9. Don't be political (unless it's your job to be) political ideas that oppose a followers ideas can turn fans off you quickly. 10. But on the other hand, regarding the above point ^ it's boring to just appease people all of the time! So stop appeasing, show people you have opinions and personality and are a thought leader! Create debate. 11. Don't dig your competitors out on twitter! 12. Don't get into a public spat with a competitor - it's very entertaining for your audience yet very unprofessional! Don't lower yourself down to their level, (unless you are sure you will win! And come out looking much smarter like nokia! - check out the apple / Nokia tweet!) it was legendary!)
13. Don't make false promises to your fans, they may remember that freebie or gift you offered them that never materialised! 14. Don't follow and retweet celebs all of the time! You look desperate! 15. Stop tagging strangers in Facebook posts, it's annoying! 16. Stop promoting stuff all of this time! It's called broadcasting and it's really off putting and not very social. 17. leave family days out and the baby photos for your personal Facebook page! 18. Don't retweet or share negative or provocative content that could place your business in a bad light! 19. Never share or retweet content that you haven't read first! 20. Don't ask friends and family to like your Facebook business page, because they probably aren't your target audience - it's about quality not quantity!! 21. Stop following people by the hundreds (on twitter) only to unfollow them the next week when they haven't followed back! 22. Don't swear (too much) unless your business depends on it! There's nothing worse than a potty mouthed childcare provider! Lol 23. Stop using hootsuite to schedule images! It's so darn annoying that to see the image, I have to go off the page on to the dodgy ow.ly link that shows you scheduled your photo just to find it wasn't worth all the effort. 24. Please don't use automated scheduled content to post content relevant to your audience at an optimal time! I'll often see 3 so called experts tweeting the same content at the same time! If you do this to save time them you are just cutting corners. You can do all of the above if you want! But, I'm just guessing.. You'll annoy people and alienate your community and all of your hard work will be destroyed!! And remember if it's too easy or it requires no brain capacity it probably is a rubbish idea!
If it's spammy or if it's too easy then you are just being lazy! Take time to put a strategy together and work out how to use the various social media channels properly as a tool for your business. What do you think? Am I wrong? Are you guilty of doing any of the above? (I know I have been!) Is there anything you would add?