Monday, June 9, 2014

Social Media Don'ts

Social media is a wonderful thing. Except when it's not. I love social media, twitter, facebook, tmblr, blogs, websites, etc. They are all awesome ways to communicate with people. But when you abuse them, you send people in the opposite direction. So here are some of my social media pet peeves.

Automatically assuming I will follow you back or asking for a follow back
I follow people who I engage with and I find interesting. I read my entire yes ENTIRE twitter feed so I follow people I like hearing from.

Posting the same blog post repeatedly on a social media site within an hour or even a few minutes of itself with different taglines
It's fine to repost at different times of the day to catch different audiences, but if you are tweeting and retweeting the same post a million times in a short time span, just stop it!

Music or autoplay videos on your blog or website
Nothing makes me leave faster than random music on a site that I can't find and turn off. I'll just close the window and not come back.
Popups on your site forcing me to look at certain content or forcing me to sign up for your mailing list
If I can't view your site without being accosted by random windows, I won’t stick around. If your site is easy to navigate, clutter free, and well labeled, I'll find your content. No need to shove it down my throat.

Being a jerk
Remember that old saying about treating people the way you want to be treated? Yeah that. Just because you don’t have to look someone in the face doesn’t mean you get to be an instant A-hole. Don't do it. Enough said.

Buy my book! Buy My Book! BUY MY BOOK!
It's fine to advertise your awesome book, but I want to know more than just your book is on sale. Your social media stream should be about 80% you, 20% buy my book. And that's honestly being generous. If I know you, I'm more likely to buy your book anyway without you mentioning it. Just think about that.
Nothing but rants
I get it. We all get frustrated sometimes and want to help others, but if your entire social stream is rant after rant after rant, I'm going to unfollow you. I want to learn about you not just what bothers you.

Nothing but negativity
We all have our horrible moments. We all even tweet or share them sometimes. But if your entire feed is woe is me, and everything sucks, I’m going to start ignoring you. I have enough of negativity in my life and I don't need that from you 100% of the time. If it continues, I will unfollow, as negativity just begets more negativity.

Tweets at me to buy your book
I'm on twitter/facebook/tmblr to get to know you. Don't assault me with links to buy your book. The same goes for any other things you might be selling, including but not limited to editing services, website design, cover design, publicity sales, marketing etc. I don't click random links from people I don't know, and if you shove your book/services down my throat I'm going to spit it out and run screaming.



Auto DM's
Just don't. They are annoying. Especially with links. I won’t click them anyway.

Pitching your books at agents
Unless it's for a specific contest and it’s requested that you pitch directly to the agent via social media, DON'T EVER DO THIS! They have submission guidelines for a reason. Follow them! Doing anything other than that will piss them off and quite possibly put you on a black list.

Follow and Unfollow me fifteen hundred times
You got my attention with the first follow. The subsequent follows turn that positive attention into an annoyance. If you continue to follow and unfollow me, I will never ever follow you back and most likely will block you.

Hashtag free for all
Use a hashtag or two to find your audience, but if you put a million I'm just going to get annoyed. You can vary your hashtags as you vary your posts throughout the day but don't overload your posts with them. This is how annoying you are:

Unreadable blog/website
I love color don't get me wrong, but if your website is blinding, the text is too small, or the colors make it otherwise unreadable I'm not going to stick around.

Social media is great. It brings people together, especially within the writing community. I have found so many wonderful people and support through social media. Just keep in mind that if you annoy people it could hurt your brand and/or your sales. In general, be nice, be happy, be supportive, and don’t incessantly annoy anyone! Those are some of my social media pet peeves. What are some of yours?

9 comments:

Mirka Breen said...

Amen to all the above. We're inundated with sales-pitches everywhere, and I avoid the ones that are crass and relentless.

For myself, I'd add to the "nothing but negativity" you had noted- "nothing but positivity." Those endless "I'm doing so well" sort of presence feels like a canned ad.

Jamie Krakover said...

That's true. While it's nice to hear positive news from everyone, I think it needs to be balanced with who the person is. Pretty soon i sold my book over and over again looks a lot like buy my book, if it isn't spaced out with other interesting and exciting things :)

Riley Roam said...

Great post!!!! Thanks.

Riley Roam said...

I'm going to tweet it right now...sans hashtags ;).

Jamie Krakover said...

haha thanks ;)

Yanting Gueh said...

Your first point already had me nodding. It turns me off when people like my page then send a message (private or public): "I've liked your page. Like mine here ..." I mean, seriously? Even if this is from a support forum looking for likes, at least ask politely "If you're interested, here's mine ..." right?

Jamie Krakover said...

Exactly! You should follow/like my stuff because you find it interesting, not because you are expecting something in return. Begging does not look good on people.

Unknown said...

I totally agree with your post. Most especially about the music and videos that are on autoplay. The page can contain the most interesting articles and posts, but if music suddenly starts blasting, I close it right away. With regard to about blogs that are filled with rants and negativity, I don't have anything against them but people sometimes go overboard with them. For example, when they rant about a small thing like a barista not getting their cup of coffee right. Those kinds of posts get to my nerves the most. Anyway, you made a lot of great points. Thank you for sharing them.

Henry Shelton @ Results Internet Marketing

Jamie Krakover said...

you're welcome! thanks for stopping by and sharing your insight :)