10 Ways You May Be
Wrecking Your Social Media Presence
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. Today I want to share 10 ways you may be wrecking your
social media presence.
You have an
inconsistent social media presence—I’m not talking about taking weekends
off, but on 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.
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.
Your website doesn’t
have social share buttons—I don’t know how much time I’ve spent on your
sites looking for your twitter handle or trying to follow you on Facebook. Most
people won’t spend more than three seconds. That’s not long.
You engage in Hashtag
overload—Hashtags are great, and using them CORRECTLY can net you a lot of
new followers. But correctly means no more than two per update. When you up
your ante to three, the results begin to drop off.
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.
You’re obsessed with
the numbers—Social Media growth takes time. Shortcuts bring more trouble than
help. As long as you’re seeing growth, you’re doing well.
You don’t utilize a
scheduling program—Personally I prefer Hootsuite. It keeps me visible
online without having to spend hours a day tied to the Internet.
You try out every new
platform that appears—No one can do everything well. Focus your energy on
Facebook and Twitter. With these two platforms you’ll hit almost 100% of your
audience. After that, no more than one or two more. Focus, focus, focus.
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.
You send out game
invitations—This is a personal one for me. I used to get so many game
requests I finally made it a hard and fast rule that I do NOT play games on
Facebook. I’ll give anyone a pass for the first invitation you send, but after
that, I will immediately unfollow anyone who sends me another one.
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.
Blessings,
Edie
I dislike having to click to read a post. Why not just put the whole post up. The most insulting ones are where you click on to a site to read the last six or seven words. I also resent double clicking - clicking to get to a site to get the intro paragraph repeated and then have to click a second time to read the rest of the post. If a post is good, most likely I will come exploring the rest of the site. I don't like being manipulated to click so many times.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Edie. I am so glad you mentioned focusing on one or two platforms. That takes the pressure off of all the invites I get from different platforms, and also helps with time management between real-life and social media:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice!
These are great rules. I too get annoyed by game invitations. Another is when you "friend" someone at their requests to receive endless promotional emails.
ReplyDeleteBut the one I think I am guilty of the most is hogging the stream. I'm guilty of posting share just to keep something on my page so I can keep track of it (like a recipe). Is there another way to save things on facebook?
Also, if we freelance, how much time should we spend on LinkedIn. I'm finding it has some value, but I'm not sure how much.
Great post, thanks so much, Edie!
Great post, Edie. My weakness is being consistent on FB and Twitter. I am on there, but I haven't figured out the best way to utilize my author page. And create effective tweets. I'm reading Amanda's book now, and it's giving me some ideas. I need to read yours too.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that bugs me the most is when I'm on Twitter and certain people are always promoting their books. I just ignore their tweets now because it's so irritating. I haven't unfollowed them. Maybe I should...?
Heather,
ReplyDeleteI am so with you. It seems like bread crumbs being left and I am being toyed with to follow the trail.
I also am frustrated with I want to be placed on the email, click the right information and then receive a notice that the email is no longer working. Hmmm I won't remember to come back and ask again.
Heather and Mary Vee, I'm not sure whether you're referring to just a short blurb in the email notification or a short blurb on the actual blog. There are reasons for both.
ReplyDeleteFor the email blurb, it's a file size issue. If you include images with your blog post (and you definitely need to) then the file size is too large to go to all email servers. Because of this, Feedburner, only allows a small blurb.
For the small blurb on the actual blog, that's a page-loading issue. If a website page doesn't load in less than a second Google (and other search engines) penalizes the site by placing it lower in the search results.
I hope this helps. At least you know there's a legit reason for the small bits instead of some ploy to manipulate the readers.
Blessings,
Edie
Angie,
ReplyDeleteAs of right now, there are over 200 social media platforms we could be a part of. Truthfully, that number changes hourly. My suggestion to all writers is this: To capture almost 100% of your readership, have a presence on FB, Twitter and Blogging. BUT, spend the bulk of your 30 minutes a day on the site you enjoy the most.
Hope this helps! Blessings, Edie
Julia,
ReplyDeleteI've run into that as well - wanting to save something and not wanting to hog the stream. The solution I've found that works for me is to copy the post in a word document, along with the URL of the site (if there is one). Then I can file it in the right place and have access to the info even if I"m offline.
Not a perfect solution, but it works for me!
Jeanne, I totally agree, I ignore those folks as well too. Blessings, E
ReplyDeleteEdie, I just love the advice you gave to Angie. And the time frame :-)
ReplyDeleteNow I've got to figure out how to exert self-control and consistency :-)
Pepper, it's very freeing to know we don't have to dedicate huge amounts of time and energy for results! Blessings, Edie
ReplyDelete