Social Media Do's and Don'ts

I will admit being a relative late-comer to the social media scene. As such, I have learned many lessons over the past several years through formal study, by reading what others have to say and working at it day and night. Also in my early efforts, I made some mistakes. These mistakes seem to be common among those who try to dip their toes into the social media water through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social/business networking platforms. In the spirit of “Givers Gain” this blog post is an attempt to pass on a summary of do’s and don’ts for the benefit of those who come after.

On the popular topic of social media do’s and don’ts… here are some excerpts and useful comments from

Quotes from CNN.com: “How to gracefully promote yourself online.” (Credit goes to Authors: Brenna Ehrlich and Andrea Bartz, who are the sarcastic brains behind humor blog and book Stuff Hipsters Hate)

Story highlights:

• It’s a fine line between tooting your own horn online and spamming everyone with tweets
• Try introducing your website to family members and close friends first
• Once you develop fans of your venture, use a public forum to THANK them personally

Are you on any online mailing lists? And how do you feel about their happy little droppings in your inbox? Gmail’s new Priority Inbox even sifts out those non-urgent newsletters from actual missives. But a funny thing happens when you yourself are thinking about starting a newsletter. “It’ll be the best thing in everyone’s mailbox!” - “It will be clever and fresh and interesting. Everyone will love it!” – Face slap from reality…

Self-promotion is an art, not a science, because it takes a bit of instinct and talent to tiptoe across the tightrope between tooting your own horn and sprinting down the street at 6 a.m. with an air horn blaring whilst your soon-to-be-former friends roll their eyes and plug their ears and discuss behind your back how desperately they wish you’d just shut … up!

To summarize what this writer learned over a couple of years and also from this referenced article:

Start with the low-hanging fruit - Your family and friends who actually care about your success.Only reach out when you have something to say – Please don’t send out weekly newsletters full of too much wordy prose. Attach interesting links, be entertaining and informative or don’t bother at all.

Thank your fans – Making them feel special will keep them coming back. I like to send them cards when I have contact information, or pick up the phone and just say “Hi” nice to hear your voice!

Let’s not let Social Media interaction take the place of real human interaction.