This is going to be a really short post because I think most people understand the basics of social media and social media etiquette. We’ve all seen the same re-hashed, re-worded and repeated advice about offering value, building real relationships and all of the other “do’s” of social media etiquette, however I wanted to get into some specifics what what not to do.
It’s a bit of a rant about things I’ve faced just this week, so I’m going to be brutally honest.
Is Bad Social Media Etiquette Robbing Your Bank Account?
Tagging other people in every little thing you get involved in.
This is by far one of my biggest pet peeves and something I deal with every day. Picture this. So you’re there every day, dedicated. You’re building momentum, creating success, your business is starting to grow, people are following you, checking out what you’re doing, liking and sharing, then there it is…
A stupid cat video or some obscure quote with you and a dozen other people tagged so it shows up on your timeline for all of your connections to be distracted by. You don’t even know the person who tagged you either.
What the crap right?
To me, this is among the last resort of someone desperate to get results in their business and can find no better way to get it, than try and steal it from you and all of your hard work. I’m not against tagging people, but when you tag people there should be some real interaction with them.
Let’s say you’re both Star Wars fans, you were talking about it, you run across a cool thing on that topic and you tag your buddy. Cool. Or like where I took pictures with leaders this past weekend in Chicago. I uploaded the pictures and tagged them. Super. But don’t just run around ninja tagging people at random. It’s desperate and it makes you look desperate.
Think about it. If you’re tagging people you’re connected to and they’re in your business, every time they start to build momentum you’re out to steal it for yourself, what do you think is going to happen to your business?
Starting group chats to spam your link.
We’ve all seen this right? The other day I’m working, following up with a couple leads and getting a bit of marketing done and the chat box pops up. I have people message me all day long and being the person I am, I’ll take a couple moments out of my day to acknowledge them.
Anyway, I say hello and this random guy is talking to me like he’s the next best thing to sliced bread and to click on his link and watch the video, then I realize that there are almost 20 other people there all yelling at him for spamming. Bottom line is that he didn’t just waste his time, but everyone else’s and managed to tick off a lot of people, and really look like an ass while doing it.
I really felt sorry for this guy so I tried to look him up and it turns out that about 10 minutes after his profile was shut down. So if you really want to waste your time, tick people off, and look like an ass while you do it – this is for you. Winning strategy right here.
Becoming a bot when people try to talk to you.
One of the things I do every day is contact at least 20 people. Call it prospecting or networking or whatever, I contact people every day, but every once in a while, I’ll run into someone who will connect back, but instead of actually talking, they’ll have this stupid cut and paste chat response or message to everything you say.
It’s like I say, “Hey, thanks for connecting. How are you?” and they reply, “Thanks for reaching out. now that we’re connected, click on this link and find out more about me and what I do! -link-” I try to have a conversation and say, “okay, but before I click on anything let’s talk a bit.” What do I get? you guessed it.
“Thanks for reaching out. now that we’re connected, click on this link and find out more about me and what I do! -link-”
Doesn’t matter what you say or do, that’s what you’ll always get. Is there a more effective way of telling someone all you care about is the money in their pocket? If you’re going to contact people and make yourself available, things like talking to people and at the very least acknowledging they’re there will go a longer way.
Replying or commenting with spam.
This one I actually find funny because I see so many people do it. Let’s say you’ve got a great post and it’s informative, it’s helping people, you’ve got great reactions and people are leaving comments, then some genius decides that in the middle of your good momentum would be the perfect time to his site or lead capture page. Never mind if it has nothing to do with anything, it’s the right time.
Just about a close second is the person who replies to a post just to ask questions or give some random advice, seemingly to show off how much of an expert they are – or something.
For example, I posted links on LinkedIn about a webinar where the combined earnings of the panel was more than a million dollars a month. This noodle-brain started this whole talk about “Is that $1,000,000 after taxes and after you have paid all the business expenses” and just on and on.
In the back of my mind I wanted to say, “dude. It’s a million dollars a month in income. Who cares if it’s before or after taxes, and if you were making a million dollars a month in income who would honestly be worried about business expenses?” But NOOOOO! I decided to engage him and ended up wasting about 20 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.
People who pitch their affiliate links on your threads.
Now this is diabolical and low. You have engagement on your thread about a business, then someone who’s also in your business jumps in, injects themselves into your business thread and start sharing their affiliate links, or worse, stalking your profile and leaving comments with their affiliate link when people ask you a question.
Seriously? Do I have to go into this one? Apparently I do, because as I’m writing this, someone did it…
“Dude, that’s not cool!” I say. He replies, “Sorry man, I was just trying to help,” then he went offline when I replied, “with your affiliate link instead of mine on my profile?”
The Bottom Line on Bad Social Media Etiquette:
So here’s the deal. Having good Social Media Etiquette isn’t rocket science. A good rule of thumb to follow, as cheesy at it sounds, is to ask yourself how you’d feel if someone did what you’re about to do to you. Also, if you wouldn’t do it in real life face to face, you really shouldn’t do it online either.
In a recent post, there is an article “Social Media Marketing: Staying Out of Facebook Jail” (opens in a new window).
You should read when you have the time. It’s not all about content, and bad social media etiquette could be the reason why someone is struggling in their business.
Besides… Do you really want to be “THAT GUY” or “THAT GIRL” who does this obnoxious stuff and isn’t even aware they’re doing it? We ALL have that one person who just doesn’t seem to get it.
Some GOOD Social Media Training
There are some other pet peeves I can through here but these are the ones that I’ve had to face since coming back from Chicago. It almost seems that the more you are successful, the more people will try and do obnoxious stuff to steal your momentum for themselves.
The sad part is that there are those who are doing it because they’re following the advice of some “guru” that has no clue how to use social media the right way to begin with, and most of these techniques take more time, effort, and get far less results than doing things the way they were intended to anyway.
So what do you think? Is there some bad social media etiquette that really gets under your skin? Leave a comment below and let me know.
In the meanwhile, set aside 30 or 40 minutes for some GOOD social media training and learn how to use social media in a way that’s ethical and gets you way more results.
In fact I teach this method to my own team and we use it to generate several hundred leads per month – and it’s not even difficult! Chances are you do it already and don’t even know, and you just need a few tweaks to make it effective.
Click here now to watch the free video training.
