THE UNSEEN/BIGGEST DANGERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA.
1. YOU DON’T OWN IT: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are companies that are managed by people that you don’t control. Insofar as your pages, groups and followers go you are at the mercy of another companies infrastructure. Fortunately these are well managed and financed companies. Social media does a good job with their infrastructure. You may say that other media such as newspapers, magazines and TV are similar in that respect, but you would be wrong. In other forms of media, you don’t invest significant assets and time into building groups and fans etc., within a purely web based architecture. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT – If Facebook servers are out so are your pages and groups, fortunately they rarely have technical issues that are not solved expeditiously.
2. YOU VIOLATE TERMS CONDITIONS AND RULES: Every social site has rules. Read them, and understand that violations of these TOC’s may lead to your pages, groups etc., being penalized or even banned. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT – If you invest a lot of time and energy into building your social networks, you certainly don’t want to run into trouble with the hosts of your pages. And things like running contests, logo usage, misdirected web addresses, copyrighted photos (that don’t belong to you), incomplete profile photos or phony ones can trigger an issue with your social media host. Just take the time to read the rules, and apply them.
3. YOU HAVE TOO MANY ACCOUNTS: It's easy to open social media accounts for yourself and/or your business. One of the objectives of your program should be to attract as many relevant members or likes as you can. Having too many groups or pages usually dilutes that objective. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT - It is difficult to maintain interest in groups and pages, having too many invites stale material, and disinterest by members.
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1. YOU DON’T OWN IT: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are companies that are managed by people that you don’t control. Insofar as your pages, groups and followers go you are at the mercy of another companies infrastructure. Fortunately these are well managed and financed companies. Social media does a good job with their infrastructure. You may say that other media such as newspapers, magazines and TV are similar in that respect, but you would be wrong. In other forms of media, you don’t invest significant assets and time into building groups and fans etc., within a purely web based architecture. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT – If Facebook servers are out so are your pages and groups, fortunately they rarely have technical issues that are not solved expeditiously.
2. YOU VIOLATE TERMS CONDITIONS AND RULES: Every social site has rules. Read them, and understand that violations of these TOC’s may lead to your pages, groups etc., being penalized or even banned. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT – If you invest a lot of time and energy into building your social networks, you certainly don’t want to run into trouble with the hosts of your pages. And things like running contests, logo usage, misdirected web addresses, copyrighted photos (that don’t belong to you), incomplete profile photos or phony ones can trigger an issue with your social media host. Just take the time to read the rules, and apply them.
3. YOU HAVE TOO MANY ACCOUNTS: It's easy to open social media accounts for yourself and/or your business. One of the objectives of your program should be to attract as many relevant members or likes as you can. Having too many groups or pages usually dilutes that objective. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT - It is difficult to maintain interest in groups and pages, having too many invites stale material, and disinterest by members.
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My advice to businesses on social media is thus:
01: Only publish on Twitter if you have something interesting to tweet regularly (keywords INTERESTING and REGULARLY).
02: Only create a Facebook page/profile if you have something engaging to share regularly with your users (keywords ENGAGING and REGULARLY).
03: Don't forget your website! Social media websites like Twitter/Facebook are here today, they might be gone tomorrow. You have no control over what happens with and on these platforms but you do with your website. With every social media network platform you embrace, drive traffic back to your website.
04: Get yourself a social media contact page or business card at http://socially.at and add a link to it in your email signature.
05: Don't employ anyone calling themselves a Social Media Expert - instead, spend your money on getting a good copywriter!
Just my opinion.
NB