Social media can be unforgiving. Say something that offends someone and they’ll un-follow you faster than you can re-tweet a tweet. You don’t want to offend, you don’t want to bore, and you don’t want to be perceived as wasting people’s time.
If for some reason, you have been avoiding social media, you should read the below tips before you get started. You should also read all you can about social media optimisation.
If you’re already using social media, you should read the following tips and check yourself – especially if you’re not getting a lot of clicks and have way more people on your following list than your social media followers list.
Tips For Keeping Your Social Media Followers Interested
• Check your last twenty status updates or links. Were most of them self-serving or were most of them selfless? If you’re doing too much self-promotion and not providing real value to the conversation, you’re not going to keep people interested.
• What’s the gap like between your updates? If you’re inundating people, they might grow weary of you quickly. If you’re not updating often enough you won’t be memorable to your social media followers. How do you strike a good balance? Daily is good. Twice in ten minutes probably isn’t so good.
• Don’t overdo it on the bragging / boasting. People who think you think you’re King or Queen of MySpaceland, the Blogosphere, Twittersphere, etc will roll their eyes and unfollow you quick smart.
• Politics. Unless your business’s purpose is fundraising or evangelism, leave that stuff off your public timeline for the most part. Unless it’s detrimental to your business that pro-gay marriage, pro-life, pro PETA, pro Marijuana smoking (you get the idea) people know what your stance is on that topic, leave it off or you’ll lose people.
• It’s all about me! Are you remembering to re-tweet for others? Do you remember to thank people for thumbing up the page you shared? Do you hop on, push out your agenda and then leave? Social media is about the “social” part and about reciprocity as well. Try interacting with your followers and you will see a huge positive difference.
• Be charming. Let your personality shine through. It’s no fun playing alone and you can make friends online if you show that you’re follow-worthy that’ll make social media effective… and fun.
• If you see a sudden drop in your social media followers in various online tools, check your recent activity to see what might have turned people off. Then, don’t do it again. Conversely, if you see that a certain type of activity nets you new followers, thumbs up, re-tweets, mentions, etc. then do that some more!
See you at the top of Google!
Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
AussieSEO.com © 2007 - 2010
It helps to think of Twitter as a dinner party. If you stand on the table screaming about your job, your car and your views on social welfare, you won’t be invited back. If you sit in the corner saying nothing, nobody’ll remember to invite you next time.
Being polite, courteous, witty and charming works wonders. And everyone will want to sit next to you.
Great way of putting it Andy, I couldn’t agree more
Important blog this one.
For a newbie to social media, it is really good to have found this article.
And, Andy… I agree with Sean. You have summarised it absolutely perfectly.
Thanks
Hi Sean,
These are all great tips for making the right impression on social media sites. I think the key is being able to interact with your social media followers. For a long time I struggled with just ‘liking’ and ‘RTing’ other people’s stuff.
But, I’m starting to get the hang of it now. You really do have to make an effort to talk to your followers and other people.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Learn and Earn – It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint =-.
Thanks for the tips Sean. Do you suggest having separate twitter profiles for personal and internet marketing?
There is nothing wrong with combining your business activities with personal stuff David, it really depends on what you personally feel comfortable with.
Great tips for social media etiquette, there is a balance between using social media for promoting your business and building trust and relationships. I liked your statement “let your personality shine through” I think that is sometimes forgotten as we try to quickly get our message across.
.-= Melanie Braggs´s last blog ..Building Chicken Coops =-.
Hi Melanie,
That’s a great point. You do have to remember to let your personality shine through. As I use my social media profiles for business; I tend to forget this tip.
Especially on Twitter as I hardly have enough characters to get my point across; let alone remember to be funny!
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Finding Your Passion =-.
Really good article this one, and good comments on it.
Social Media is such an important tool to promote oneself in so many ways, but useless and lost as a tool if you are percieved as the idiot at the dinner table.
Some very good points in this one, Sean. I sometimes forget about the “letting my personality shine through” part. I do try very hard to not let the shyness rear it’s head. For the most part I succeed, I think. Overcoming a lot of negative reinforcement during the formative years takes constant work. But, it’s worth it.
I looked back at my last 20 posts of facebook and if you were following me you wouldn’t have a clue what I was about. I have “sharing” other peoples blogs on my page but it has made it look really spammy with heaps of links and no communication from me. I think the secret to sharing links is to actually write a comment as well.
.-= Jackie Stenhouse´s last blog ..Types of Child Anxiety Disorder =-.
Most definitely provide some sort of message with your links Jackie
Hi Sean
I look forward to going into social media sites to share and help others. I am sure I will learn a lot more this way.
Even though I have a lot to give, I am also happy to receive if it is offered but I don’t expect it in return.