Social Media Worst Practices
You’ve probably gotten tons of fabulous great advice about how to do social media, but what about bad advice? Bad advice is rare right? Just joking! Sometimes bad advice is so bad that it can be good. Or at least, good for a big laugh! Here are some social media worst practices suggested by a few social media manager friends.
“Social media is a waste of time”
Haven’t heard this one since 2009, but there may be some who still believe it. My friend Heather Baker Steele (of Blue Steel Solutions) suggested this one.
“Automate Direct Messages in Twitter”
Send an auto DM to people right after they follow you thanking them–or asking them to “like” you on Facebook. Maybe back in the day people were able to pull this off successfully, but I haven’t seen anyone do a good job with an auto DM recently. This is one that I’ve heard personally.
“Just connect all your networks to Facebook, and schedule, and it will all get cross-posted. #FACEPALM“
A beauty of a piece of bad advice, via Kirti Dwivedi, of Diya Marketing. What some people don’t know is that you can see when you cross-post. On Twitter, those posts show up with a shortened Facebook link. People know you’re not there, so they’re not very likely to follow you.
“Automate posts on Facebook (via 3rd party app) especially if you are strapped for time”
Ruby Rusine of Social Success Marketing sent that one. Did you know that it’s pretty easy to schedule from right within Facebook? No need to use a scheduler!
“Cross-Posting Can Save You a Lot of Time”
Yes, it can. You can save even more time if everyone unfollows you because your cross-posting annoys them! Because then you’ll only have a few followers, and fewer conversations.
Social Media Worst Practices: ROI on Every Tweet
“You Need a ROI on Every Tweet”
This one was submitted by friend Amy Donohue (@TheFabulousOne on Twitter). And yes, social media managers hear this one a lot. Some even try to micromanage Twitter by asking their social media managers to justify each tweet. See my post on how to demotivate employees for more information!
“We don’t need Twitter”
This one is pretty common, although most people then admit that they don’t understand Twitter. Another good one that Amy Donohue heard. And if you think Twitter is a waste of time…did you know that Amy donated her kidney because of a tweet? Take a look at the trailer for her movie, “Social Media Stole My Kidney.”
“Buy followers to get your clients started.”
Another wonderful and terrible piece of advice heard by Kirti Dwivedi of Diya Marketing. If you want to know about reasons not to do this, see my previous post about buying fake followers and why it’s a bad idea.
Did you get any really good bad advice?
Was there any bad advice that made you laugh out loud? I’d love to hear it!
And thank you to all my social media manager friends for the bad advice!
Thanks for sharing this Carol. I now start to giggle when I see the recurring theme of Twitter direct messages. Cringing just mentioning it. LOL
Hi Patricia,
Twitter DMs are something that most people love to hate. Thanks for your comment!
Sincerely,
Carol
These are all great. I agree with them all.
Thank you, Bridget! Much appreciated.
Carol
Great tips. Thanks for including me. :)
Thank you for contributing, Amy Donohue!
Thank you for this!! I may well have to direct some of my clients here, who often tell me ‘can’t you just buy some followers to start with’? To which I firmly make them aware that I will not use such tactics and do not provide ‘quick-fix’ options. Thanks for the comment on Twitter auto-DMs too – the worst!!! *facepalm*
Hi Hannah,
Brands don’t realize that buying followers hurts more than helps them. And other people can easily find out if they’ve bought followers, too.
Yes, aren’t Twitter auto-DMs the WORST?
Thanks for stopping by!
Carol
I never considered buying followers because I was too cheap. Looks like my wallet gave me good advice.
Hello Jim,
Yes, your wallet was a good advisor! The money would’ve been the least of your problems if you had bought followers.
Thanks for commenting,
Carol
Ooh, name and shame Carol!
One of my top social media dislikes is the fb.me/ tweets – those cross-posted from Facebook. That’s like leaving all of your business literature and business cards at a networking event then not bothering to show in person. It comes across as rude.
Love your work, looking forward to more,
Lorelei
Hello Lorelei,
I completely agree with you. And it asks a lot of a reader on Twitter to go to Facebook, find the source of the message, and figure out what the link is.
Good one.
Thank you!
Carol