You’re Probably Breaking at Least 1 of 3 Essential Social Media Etiquette Rules
Like it or not social has become part of our daily business and personal dialogue. Verbs like “pinning” “crowdfunded” and “follow” have new meanings and it’s been said that news no longer breaks-it Tweets!
Are you up to speed on your etiquette?
If not, a simple boner using the wrong term or misstep could mean everything from simply losing friends and followers to losing your job.
Here are 3 essential rules of etiquette you might not be following:
1. I’ve heard many experts say that old-school rapper Vanilla Ice had social figured out before social media had a name. 3 words: Stop. Collaborate (and) Listen.
Are you carpet bombing your group’s Discussion Board with your self-serving, promotional stuff? You’re fooling yourself if you think we don’t see your “valuable” workshop, webinar or event as a thinly veiled sales pitch.
Rule of thumb: 12 to 1. Post, Tweet, Share something awesome that ISN’T yours 12 times to every 1 promo. AND listening via social is waaaaaaay undervalued and underutilized. Just saying…
2. I can trace my (limited) success in business and social to 3 things: Humility, Tenacity and Generosity.
Tenacity for the purpose of this post means consistency. The only way to get good at social is jumping in and doing it and not giving up.
Humility DOESN’T mean posting on Facebook “Feeling so humbled to have won another Emmy Award for my TV show…” http://bit.ly/10lefll We’ve probably all done this at least once on accident (purposely) but humble brags are douchey.
Generosity has a wide interpretation in social, but generally we should be amplifying things we like (amplify= Sharing, Liking, Pinning, Retweeting, Commenting, etc) and giving credit where credit is due (attribution). This is often called social currency and smart people and brands work together exchanging social currency every second of every day.
For example, if someone posts a link to something valuable on Twitter that really inspired you, you should RT (retweet) it to your followers as a way to give props and say thanks to the author or curator.
FAILING to do so is like going to Costco hungry on purpose, eating from ALL of the food sample tables until you’re full, then leaving the store without buying anything. RUDE. Borderline criminal.
Same goes for Subscribing to someone’s Youtube Channel, Facebook page, etc if they are providing you with awesome free content. DON’T BE THAT GUY AT COSTCO.
Side Bar- Most companies are throwing out “follow us on Facebook” BUT forgetting to give us a valid reason to do so. If you are one of these lazy marketers, please stop screwing up social media marketing for the rest of us. You’ve diluted and polluted the waters so much that we’re completely tuned out and we’re only a few years into this thing…
Here’s a possible good example of some of the things you might write to compel your audience to join your social media party:
Join our Facebook page to get your exclusive free subscription to the all-new Linked Orange County Magazine. http://on.fb.me/182cacv
Follow us on Twitter for the latest business stories about people who are making things happen in OC. http://bit.ly/1aq2oar
Subscribe to our Youtube Channel to watch free video insights to grow your biz from experts who’ve done it. http://bit.ly/10lefll
Lastly…
3. 99% of Social Media “Experts” are Clowns
I wrote this for OC Metro Magazine 2 years ago and it is more true today than ever.http://blogs.ocmetro.com/beware-the-social-media-expert/
Weigh in and let me know your thoughts. This conversation will be held exclusively on Twitter or Facebook.
Tweet me: http://twitter.com/BryanElliott and I promise to reply to comments. The hashtag is #LinkedOC
Head over to our Linked OC Facebook page to keep this discussion going:http://facebook.com/LinkedOC
Talk to you soon!
-Bryan Elliot
Editor-in-Chief, Linked OC Magazine
