Is There A Right Way To Do Social Media?

Nov

By Ed Heil | Categories Our Blog, Social Media

Is there a right way to “do” social media? I suppose it’s no different than asking whether there’s a right way to “do” conversation and the answer is, probably not. However, there are socially acceptable ways to have a conversation just as there are socially acceptable ways to engage in social media. So then, it is also true that there are those in social media who are socially inept just as there are people who are socially inept in face to face situations.

The socially awkward, or inept, people online show themselves in many ways, you see them all the time in places like Facebook. They are the people whose self-promoting posts are always about themselves or they’ll relentlessly comment on your posts or conversations only to talk about themselves. If you’re wondering if you’re socially inept or awkward in social media -as a brand or as yourself take this litmus test:

Do you self-promote your greatness in a way that leaves people awkwardly speechless?
Do your posts about your “amazing life” draw few, if any “likes” or comments?
Do you find it difficult to hold back the unbridled joy you have for your child’s every movement and feel compelled to share the most insignificant details with the world?
Do you feel that you have nothing else to post, other than the big sale happening at your store next month?
Do your posts insidiously scream, “enough of me, what do YOU like about me?” (ie. what do YOU like most about our products?)
Do you comment on other posts only to share information about you?
Do you “auto-post” your geo-location information to online properties without giving a frame of reference in the details? (ie. “I just ran 5-miles using my ‘iRun Mapping’ geo-tracker thingy”)
Is your idea of sharing valuable content placing your newspaper print ads on your Facebook page?
Is your idea of a blog post one of your recent news releases?
Do you suspect most of your “friends” hidden you on Facebook?

If you’ve answered yes to more than one of these questions, you may be socially inept in social media. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – that is unless you want to be a complete flop or annoyance in social media. Not so bad for you as a person, but it can be crippling for a business because it’s awfully hard to recover from poor public relations. What we believe are at the heart of all good posts is the mindset that they should be more of you, less of me.

What do you think? Is there a right way to “do” social media? Or are there simply a bunch of ways to do it poorly? Do you have other examples of socially awkward posts? Let ‘em rip!

Ed Heil is the owner and president of StoryTeller Media & Communications an inbound marketing and public relations agency based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Ed blogs on topics related to inbound marketing, social media, media relations, news media and crisis communications. Follow Ed on Twitter @erheil.

Tags: best practices on Facebook, Facebook, friends, public relations, social media, social media awkwardness

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