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Tested Ways to Fail with Your Holiday Social Media Posts

July 7, 2016 By 6 Comments
Tested Ways to Fail with Your Holiday Social Media Posts

Tested Ways to Fail with Your Holiday Social Media Posts

You’ve probably heard lots of advice about what to post on social media during the holidays. But is anyone telling you how to fail? Maybe not! So here’s my two cents about the best ways to fail!

fake musician photo

Photo by Marc-Anthony Macon

Brag About Your Cooking

Show closeups of all your holiday meals, and post them on Instagram, but use the #HumbleBrag hashtag so people know you’re kidding. And tell people why you deserve that brand new outdoor Tandoori clay oven. Believe me, people want to know!

Bonus Points: Tell people how hard it is to get good help these days!

chef wine photo

Photo by SF CHEFS

Drink Before Posting

Before you post anything, make sure to have a lot of Arnold Palmers. Or Whiskey Sours! Then, when you try to spell, it’s so much more exhilarating and creative! Why, it becomes almost like a game! Which reminds me, here’s my post about the Gamification of Social Media that you might like.

Bonus Points: Posts with no punctuation!

drunk bar photo

Photo by Kamal H.

Drink While Posting

You’ve heard of Wine Wednesdays, right? Who says you can’t drink and post or drink while posting or — or — where was I going with this? Oh, right. Nowhere.

Bonus Points: Videos with the sound of breaking glass, then silence.

 texting photo

Send Many Direct or Private Messages

It’s so easy to send messages these days. And why not send an invitation to your (holiday) sale to everyone who follows you? And now on Twitter you can send direct messages to multiple people. The joy, the joy!

Bonus: Create a Facebook event and invite people you have never met to your sale!

drunk bar photo

Photo by DaigoOliva

Post Embarrassing Photos

Post the worst pictures you can find of your closest relatives, huddled over a smoking bbq with charred hamburgers. That should show them a thing or two! They might not appreciate it right now, but they will in the future! Better still, blackmail them with those photos. By the way, here’s some great ways to fail on Pinterest.

Bonus Points: Not sure this can get any worse. But maybe it can!

funny photo

Silly Stuff

Anything that makes your followers go “Huh?” is fair game! The less they understand, the better! See drunk posting, above. Talking to yourself is a good way to go.

spell mistake photo

Photo by Nick Kenrick.

Don’t Spellcheck Anything

That’s right, anyone can believe. But weather you should believe? And by the way, here’s why you shouldn’t rely on spellcheckers.

valentine photo

Inappropriate Invitations

Have you ever received an invitation from someone in another city? State? Country? Now you can not only be the recipient of inappropriate invitations, you can originate them, too! Yay!

belly flop photo

Photo by Prayitno / Thank you for (10 millions +) views

What Failures Have You Seen Around Holidays?

I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, and some fails are harmless. Have you seen any good ones?

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Social Media Worst Practices

December 4, 2014 By 12 Comments
Social Media Worst Practices

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

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!

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Secrets of the Social Media Circus, Part II

November 14, 2013 By 6 Comments
Secrets of the Social Media Circus, Part II

Secrets of the Social Media Circus, Part II

You may have seen my first post, Secrets of the Social Media Circus, about some of the clowns you might see around on social media. Some of those clowns escaped from that first post in their tiny cars, but I’ve managed to recapture some here. Finally! Considering that they wear such big shoes, they can run (and drive) pretty fast!

Insane Clowns

The Insane Clown is a spammer. She is responsible for those Twitter Direct Messages that say “Have you seen this bad joke about you?” with viruses in links to phishing sites. Do not let this Krazy Klown spray you with social media seltzer water. And do not lean in to smell the squirting daisy on her lapel because that water is clowntaminated. Yes, the insane clown deserves a prominent role–in the Social Media Clown Hall of Fame, that is.

Rodeo Clowns

This clown does all kinds of fancy rope tricks, and will get you roped in, too. Don’t hire these clowns to do your social media because when the bull is charging, you’ll be all alone in the middle of the ring, while your “clownpadres” hide safely in their barrels. While they’re juggling you and their other clients, one of the pins often drops…and that’s when they do their grand finale–their disappearing act. Once the circus is over, you’ll be the one following the elephants with the shovel, if you get my drift.

Harlequins

Harlequins are the predecessors of modern clowns. The translation of harlequin is “demon or hellion.” His main purpose in life is to break laws, confuse people, and do tricks. Sounds like a pretty modern clown to me! And also like a few of the clowns you could meet on any social media platform.

The Nice, Kind Clown

The Nice, Kind Clown

The Nice, Kind Clown

Haha! Fooled you–there’s no such thing! In their hearts, all clowns are evil. There’s even a special psychological term for the fear of clowns: Coulrophobia. We all knew that. Wait a minute. Do you hear that faint honking sound in the distance and the pitter-patter of giant shoes? I was only kidding! Clowns can take a joke, right? RIGHT? AAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

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When Social Media Isn’t

July 23, 2013 By 11 Comments
When Social Media Isn't

When Social Media Isn’t

I’ve been saying this until I’m nearly blue in the face: you have to be social on social media to succeed. People are still doing feeds from Facebook, saying that they get no clients from Twitter (because they only have a feed from Facebook), and doing everything they can to make social media easier for themselves. Social media requires some  work if you want to do it right. Here are some worst practices!

Broadcasting

What can I say about broadcasting that hasn’t already been said? People want conversation and engagement. So listen, chat, be friendly, and inclusive. Reach out to newbies and be generous first.

Reckless Retweeting

Retweeting  conversations between other people, retweeting a whole list of people when you’re having a conversation with just one person on the list, and retweeting Friday Follows with no reason given to follow all come across as lazy.

Bad Auto-DMs

On Twitter, good Auto Direct Messages are a rare breed. The majority of auto-DMs are, at best, boring and at worst spammy.

Whining on Facebook

Having a negative attitude on Facebook won’t generally make people want to engage more with you. Don’t tell people how stupid Facebook is on Facebook. If you hate Facebook that much, don’t use it. But if you hate it and still insist on using it, for God’s sake, shut up about it (you know who you are!). I can say this, because I know you’re not reading this right now, you Facebook hater, you.

Oversharing

Are you anti-social on social media?

Are you anti-social on social media?

Do you have people who’ve begged you not to post pictures of them on Facebook, and yet you continue to post and tag them? Hint: you’re not Ansel Adams! Respect your friends’ wishes, and don’t overshare or stalk, and tag responsibly. Remember, friends don’t let friends tag unflattering photos.

Using Personal Facebook Page as  Business Page

Occasional spillover isn’t so annoying, but your friends expect to see more personal posts on your personal page. There are many benefits to having a business page for your business!

Alienating Your Audience

Recently a friend sent me a tweet from a brand saying that “The likelihood that I will unfollow you on Instagram once you have a baby is about 97%”.  Maybe someone thinks this is “disruptive” but it just seems antagonistic.

Giving Twitter Shoutouts to Those You Don’t Follow

When you give shoutouts listing people to follow, yet you don’t follow any of them, this is inexplicable.

Repinning Every Pin

Have you experienced this? Someone repins every single thing you pin, yet doesn’t follow you. That, my friends, is stealing someone’s Pinterest soul. If you like my pins that much, follow me!

Do You Practice Social Media or Anti-Social Media?

Certainly you’ve seen some anti-social media practices. Which ones really get your three billy goats gruff?

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