Three Reasons Why You Fail at Social Media

There’s no shortage of information out there about how to do well with social media, I thought I would look at things from a different perspective. Here are three things you must not do if you wish to succeed in social media.

You Try To Automate It.

I see so many people who think using social media is about the right tools that automate the experience. If a family member invited you to their wedding would you automate your interaction with them and your presence at their wedding? Too often we get caught up in growing our numbers that we forget how important our impact with those followers is. Automating your social media experience will undoubtedly lessen your impact on your followers. Spending more time making real connections will build you up faster than any automation.

You Pimp Too Many Links.

We’ve all seen these people on Twitter and Facebook, every update is a link to their website and if you dig deep enough (most people don’t bother) you will see that they are actually repeating the same links over and over. While this might get you a few clicks here and there certainly won’t ignite anyone or make them want to suggest you to their followers. The people who do get away with link pimping are the ones who interact and offer value 9/10 times while pimping a link less than 10% of the time.

You Follow And Unfollow To Try and Look Popular.

One of the biggest problems with Twitter is that the common misinformation out there suggests that you build up your following by following people and then subsequently unfollowing them. All this does is make people dislike you. You may look popular from a numbers perspective but your followers think you’re a douche bag.

The people who do well, follow those whom they respect and wish to receive updates from. Those people may or may not choose to follow you back, that should be irrelevant to you. The way to get more followers is to interact with the people you follow publicly as much as possible. Social media is here to stay and you should really consider what kind of reputation you are building for yourself online. Ask yourself this question every time you consider a new move. Would this fly at a party or business meeting? If the answer is no don’t do it on social media.