I don’t know about you but I don’t claim to be a social media expert. Far from it.
There’s plenty of things I’ve done wrong with social media. You may be doing them too.
I want to be honest today. I’ve been using social media wrong. I’m sorry. I want to change and I want to help you avoid the social media mistakes I’ve made.
Image via Manoel Lemos
Social media is a new beast in the internet world. Sure, it’s a couple of years old but it’s still finding it’s foothold and it’s purpose.
Sites like Xanga and MySpace have come and gone and evolved.
So has Facebook, Twitter, and (the new kid) Google+.
And everyone is trying to figure out how to use social media to the best of their ability.
Like I said, I’ve done this wrong. I haven’t been a good steward of social media. I’ve made stupid social media mistakes.
Let’s take a look at the mistakes I’ve made in social media. You might be surprised. And I hope you’ll take note and avoid these mistakes.
I failed to share myself: Sure, I shared my content (That’s a mistake I’ll get to later) but I didn’t share myself. I only shared content.
Rarely would I enter into the social media world and post something that related to my life. You wouldn’t see me posting a picture of an exciting outdoor adventure I’d participated in. Or you wouldn’t see my excitement over the latest Five Iron Frenzy CD release (By the way, this is the band that helped me meet my beautiful wife).
Don’t make this social media mistake. Be willing to expose your life to the world. Share moments of life that bring you joy and pleasure. Don’t make your Twitter or Facebook page all about business. Bring something personal to the table.
I constantly retweeted my blog mentions: Whenever someone would mention my blog or something awesome about myself, I went into what I call whore-mode. What’s this mean?
I’d retweet whatever they’d written about me so everyone could see how great I was. I wanted people to know others were talking about myself. I become a social media w****.
Sure, I’d done it under the pretense of thanking the person who shared my content (don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful when someone shares what I’ve done) but I began using it as another way of promoting myself over and over.
A better way to thank those who are sharing what you’re doing is to do a reply thank you or to mention them in a comment that has no mention of your website.
Let your fans know you appreciate them. Just don’t let it be another promotion tool for your content.
I neglected posts and tweets from other users: My thought has been that I’m too busy to engage too much on social media. I can’t respond to every tweet or Facebook post so I struggled with responding to one or two. It wasn’t fair.
But life’s not fair. We’re not all going to get the same amount of attention from each person. Yet we can do for one or two what we wish we could do for all.
Don’t let the fact you can’t engage with every fan hold you back from engaging with one, two, or three fans who are following you.
Be engaging. Be conversational. Be real.
There, I’ve laid it bare. You’ve seen my social media mistakes and what I’ve done.
Don’t make the same mistakes as I have.
Avoid being impersonal. Avoid being a social media w****. Avoid neglecting your social media fans.
Question; What mistakes have you made with social media? What did you do to change it? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.