Business 101: You Weren’t Raised in a Barn – Get Some Social Skills! How to Avoid Committing the Social Media Sins

New to social media? There are a few ‘Deadly Sins’ you need to know about. (Sorry, these sins make me a little cranky so pardon the venting). The original title of this post was “The 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media”, but once I got started, I found that I couldn’t stop a just 7 and the term “sins” may be a little harsh.

There is no Social Media Hell that you are going to rot in if you commit these boo boos. But you will annoy your audience and lose friends and followers in the long term. If you are going to spend the time on social media, do it right.

How to Avoid Committing the Social Media Sins

• Auto DM’s – Don’t do them! Many people set up an automatic Direct Message to be sent to anyone who follows them on Twitter. This is spam. And annoying. No one wants to make money with your Online EZ Cash Wealth System or click on your link to your special Welcome video. Even if you are just saying “Hi. Thanks for following me!” it’s not effective. Have a real conversation on Twitter instead.

• Asking random people on Twitter to look at your website with the @reply tag – Come on people! You wouldn’t walk up to someone in a networking meeting or Chamber event and say “Hi, do you want to buy my stuff?” so don’t do that.

• Asking people you barely know on Twitter to retweet your sales pitch – It’s okay to ask your Twitter friends who support you and have an audience that would benefit from your offer to retweet your stuff. But don’t go asking everyone you know in a personal DM or @reply to retweet your sales pitch. Form relationships and people will naturally retweet you. You can say “Please RT” at the end of your tweet and the people who want to retweet you will.

• Crashing Twitter chats and spam your link to your website – If you are coming to a Twitter chat, participate. You might as well streak through the Superbowl with your website attached to your heiny – that would be more effective.

Facebook Sins

• Friending random people and then posting your link to your website on their wall – Again, see the example number 2 above. It’s not nice.

• Liking a Page and posting your link to your website – Same thing here. We don’t want to lose weight or drink crazy juice and if we do, we’ll do our own research. If the Page invites you to post your website, then by all means, share. Or if you have some information that will benefit the audience and they are discussing it in a post, put a link there. Add value!

• Tagging people in Videos and Notes that have NOTHING to do with them – This can be tempting. If you tag someone there is a higher possibility that they will see your Note or Video. Don’t give in – it’s not effective; it’s annoying.

• Inviting your entire friend list to an event that doesn’t pertain to them at all – Don’t do it. This is especially true of local events. Don’t invite your friends in New York to come to your Open House in San Francisco. Then all the reminders that get sent out are just going to annoy them. Make Friends Lists so that you can invite relevant people to relevant events (get the how-to tutorial here).

Other than that, there is no exact right formula. If you are talking to people and connecting, then you are doing it right. Just do your best, eat your vegetables and get your elbows off the table.

Need a step-by-step guide to Twitter or Facebook? Take a look at Grandma Mary’s online Facebook tutorials and if you need more help, buy her How to Use Facebook to Grow your Business e-book!