9 Things you are doing wrong with Social Media

If my 10 years broadcasting on air in the radio industry taught me anything, it was that as social creatures, human beings need to communicate. The lessons learned in radio transfer almost seamlessly to on-line Social Media - Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

To be social you need to communicate.
To communicate you need to listen to the other people.
To communicate effectively you have to be authentic & engaging.
To be authentic - you need to be yourself.
And to be engaging you should ‘include’ your audience – not exclude it.

... oh, and a little humour can help. A lot.

So really, social media is a conversation. Although - you’re typing/broadcasting your side of the conversation online.


9 Things you are doing wrong with Social Media

1 - "To all you twitter people out there..." Keep the conversation One-to-One. Always speak in the “first person”. People are normally reading tweets by themselves and conversely you are not presenting to a room full of people huddled around a computer monitor!

2 - "The Blog Trilogy" Keep it short – word economy. On Twitter you have only 140 characters; you don’t need to use them all! If you need more space write a log post ... not a novel.

3 - "One time - in Band Camp ..." Keep things interesting & keep your followers attention. There’s a reason they followed you – keep it coming. You have your audience – they want more!

4 - "No reply required" Keep answering the phones – well, on-line that converts to replying to tweets/direct messages. Also, be sure to thank Blog responses - even if you don't agree with their comments, this is a conversation after-all.

5 - "That's all I got" Keep giving stuff away – online, this can be information (article links), or even links to free pdf/mp3 downloads, etc.

6 - "You don't wanna know" Actually, we do. Keep it human – human nature is universal, if you are impressed/offended by something, chances are so is someone else.

7 - "Oops I messed up. I gotta go now" Keep on going. If you make a mistake or screw-up, just keep on going. It’s natural to make mistakes & your followers will recognize/forgive this.

8 - "My opinion on Irish politics ..." Keep it local – doesn’t always apply on-line, but if you can type with passion about a local event, that will certainly ad value to your social media impact.

9 - "OK, disregard that last post!" Keep being you. Don’t go changing - while your trending topics may change, unless you have a life changing experience, it doesn't make sense to pull a complete 180 on your own opinions.

Social Media – you’re doing it wrong.

Okay, let's assume for a minute you (or your business) have your own Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Second Life, Skype, Vimeo, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Hi5, Bebo, MySpace, Flickr or perhaps one of many other online social/business networking account(s).

But are you doing it right?

Twitter is a new medium – so that means we are all new to Twitter, right? So what makes one user an expert and another a mere amateur? Over 300 followers? Over 1 thousand? Total amassed quantity of Tweets – 500 or 5,000? Is it the quality of the content? The RT’s vs. Original Tweet ratio (or RTVOTR as we like to call it)? The helpful links you share? Or the number of times you thank new twitter followers “for the follow”. Do you Auto-Follow – or Auto-Reply? Is this just good manners or bad web etiquette? Is your waking thought each morning: “What are you doing today Twitterverse?” Do your closest friends only refer to you by your “Twitter name”?

Do you really need a Facebook “fan page” to build your business – or your low self-esteem? Is it really okay to have your Mom/Boss/Pet as your Facebook friend? Did you create a Facebook profile for your pet? (Do you even need to own a pet?) Do you “tag” friends personal photographs, in the hope others will see their misjudged decisions at the beach, office Christmas party, or during the entire 80’s decade?
Do you have the strange disconnect (similar to bumping into an old college friend at the line in your local Grocery Store) when you actually get an e-mail from your LinkedIn profile? Or even better – wonder who the hell gave you that glowing reference and is begging you return the favour.

If you answered a meek "Yes" to any of the previous statements, or even paused to think – then (as far as social media is concerned) yes, you are doing it wrong.

How then do you drag yourself out from underneath the weight of being a Social Media Outcast? (or SMO). As with any personal dilemma – you must hire a professional! I mean, you could just try to stumble through your SM issues utilizing current technology via the tried and trusted method your parents taught you of “Trial and Error” - but that’s so Web 1.0! Forget reading “Social Media Expert” blogs, Googling The Top 10 Twitter Mistakes, or buying every copy of any Seth Godin book you can locate on Amazon.com. No, you are already losing potential followers by the second and your closest High School friends wouldn’t remember you if they saw you in a police line-up!

You MUST hire a Social Media Expert – or SME 2.0 - to compose your next; Tweet, Facebook Status update, LinkedIn Profile, upload photo’s to your Fickr account, AND entire blog post, or better still, post-dated blog posts covering the past 5 years.

After-all, it’s Social Media - what makes you think you can do it yourself?