by Edie Melson @Edie Melson
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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
So proud of me!! Out of your list, the scheduler is the only one I'm not doing! (jussssst can't let go of that control...)
ReplyDeleteOne exception to the don't over-promote myself, though, is my month long blog blitz release celebration! Each post this month, while a "regular" blog feature, has the banner and heading for my release. Otherwise, I probably don't promote me own self enough! LOL
I wonder what is meant by the 5 to 1 rule. I do a lot of sharing for other authors, other contests, and just fun stuff from others. But I don't do a lot of posts about what I'm doing, what I'm thinking, etc. What should be in the 5? :)
ReplyDeleteAs always, great guidelines, especially for those of us who are beginning to build online presence.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the game invitations! Ugh!
ReplyDeleteI know I need to work on consistency. I'll post, schedule tweets, update my blog for a big and then forget to do it when I'm involved in something else. I need to make a blog post schedule and stick to it. By the way, your recommendation to schedule tweets through Hootsuite, etc. has helped me so much! Thanks for that!
Great post, Edie!