A friend of mine on Facebook today (and yesterday) shared a photo of a huge blister on his toe. It was about the size of a grape, in fact. Of course, he got lots of sympathy and plenty of requests from his friends to visit a doctor.
He also had one person unfriend him.
This might not be a big deal for some folks, but for someone who has hung out a billboard as a web marketing professional, it’s the kind of dumb mistake that can lose you a lot of credibility. It was also the inspiration for this post listing some of the dumb social media mistakes that are are actually pretty easy to avoid, as long you use some common sense.
1. Don’t “out” people who prefer to remain anonymous. Another friend of mine was tagging some photos from our college days. She’s mutual friends with one of my buddies who prefers to remain anonymous, but that didn’t stop her from tagging him in several photos.
It should have been common sense that he wanted to be anonymous. He used a pseudonym for his username. Had he wanted people to know his real name, he would have used it, so violating his trust by labeling him in photos was bad form. Common sense.
2. Don’t post about politics. Unless you’re paid to campaign, it’s probably better to keep your opinions about politics to yourself. Trust me. You’re not going to change anyone’s mind about the government shutdown with you lovingly-crafted 140 character Tweet on the subject. You’re just going to piss off at least half of your potential clients and/or employers.
3. Don’t post about religion. Same principle as #2. You’re not going to change anyone’s mind, and you risk offending someone. I have one friend who I call an evangelical atheist. He’s young and cocky, but someday he’s going to apply for a job, and the person processing his application is going to think twice about interviewing him because she’s a devout Christian who’s offended by some of his more extreme comments.
4. Don’t get too personal. Professionals who are networking with people they want to do business with often feel uncomfortable when reading about your medical problems or your relationship issues on Facebook or Twitter. It’s probably a good idea to look for sympathy from people you actually know and see in person than seeking it online.
5. Watch the profanity. There’s no reason to offend potential clients just because you have a limited vocabulary. I understand that some people swear as part of their “brand”, but you can probably find a way of branding yourself without offending people with the language you use. Coca-Cola and Disney have both managed to build huge brands without using a lot of profanity.
6. Don’t share nonsense. Check Snopes before re-posting some nonsense that someone else posted. Even if you post, “I don’t know if this is true” as a caveat, you’re still damaging your credibility by posting urban legends and myths. A lot of these viral pieces of nonsense are related to politics, so this relates to mistake #2 above.
7. Learn how to write well. Good grammar and spelling count even when you’re using social media. Plenty of intelligent, well-educated people would love to do business with other intelligent, well-educated people. Not everyone who makes grammatical and spelling errors on their social media posts are unintelligent or ignorant, but it’s hard to argue that you’re not making that impression.
Of course, if you’re not doing social media marketing for a living, you can ignore most of these–especially if you limit the number of people you network with via these channels to your close friends and relatives. In fact, if you just don’t give a darn, you can ignore all of these anyway, but keep in mind that you might be costing yourself some money if and when you do ignore these mistakes.
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Thanks for the reminders. I find it hard to not be otherwise. I usually want to say what I want to say. Suppose keeping your mouth shut and thinking about something first is the better way to go.
I hate social media.
😉