5 social media resolutions for the new year
Originally published in Social Media Today
After speaking with a few people about their social media pet peeves, I thought it would be fun to compile a short list of items for people to consider as they get more and more involved in "this social media thing."
Here are five resolutions (in no particular order) for the new year that will make you a better participant in social media.
Unify Your Presence Across Social Networks
Everyone uses multiple social networks at this point, but people shouldn't have to guess if they're looking at the same person on different networks. Do a little personal branding and use the same username (or as close as possible) and similar biographic information across your networks. This is branding 101. Another way to address this issue is to use a tool like About.Me, which lets you create and customize a personal landing page that can have links to all your social networking profiles. Then, be sure to take the next step and add your About.Me link to your email signature.
Only Link Your Social Profiles Where it Makes Sense
Just because you *can* share information across social networks, doesn't mean you *should*. I may have opted to follow you on Twitter because you share regular updates on a couple topics I care about, but that doesn't mean I need to know that you've just become the mayor of your local Jack In The Box. If I want to know that information, I'll add you as a friend on Foursquare.
Think Before You Link
If you do opt to link your social profiles, think long and hard about the types of content you produce for different mediums. Ask yourself if the content is relevant and appropriate for all of them. Perfect example: LinkedIn allowed users to link their Twitter accounts and thereby show each Twitter update to their LinkedIn contacts. Good idea in theory, but I can't even count the number of times I've seen someone complaining about a job, a co-worker or a never-ending conference call with a client via Twitter and that information is then immediately visible to that person's professional network on LinkedIn. I'd be willing to bet that in most cases, said co-worker, boss or client is a LinkedIn contact! Use common sense: if you're going to use different tools for different purposes and audiences, then do not link them!
Be Real
Here's another from the 'just because you can, doesn't mean you should' department. Don't give in to the temptation of setting up an automatic direct message on Twitter that is sent to every new person who follows you. This one is a big pet peeve of many long-time Twitter users (and it has been discussed and debated for a good couple years now) and won't win you any favors-in fact, it will likely cause people to immediately un-follow you!
Make it Personal
If you produce content for a blog, website or newsletter and use Twitter or Facebook (or other methods) to syndicate that content, use automated syndication tools sparingly. For example, your corporate blog can be setup to send tweets from your corporate Twitter handle every time a new post is published (and you don't have to do anything-how convenient!). You see tweets like this all the time: 'New Blog Post: Headline of the Entry,' which is not only impersonal, but means you're missing out on a few opportunities. Take the extra minute to write up a tweet linking to the post-maybe add relevant hashtags, or better yet, @ reply people or companies that are either 1) referenced or 2) would be interested in the post. The same rule applies to adding new professional contacts on LinkedIn-customize the invite rather than using the generic text provided 'out of the box.' You'll be surprised by the results when you make things more personal.
What are your social media resolutions?