Aug. 11--It's OK to make mistakes. The problem comes when you repeat them. I cringe whenever I see people making mistakes in social media, mostly because they are so easy to fix.
Today, let's concentrate on Facebook. Here are six things you're probably doing wrong on Facebook and how to fix them.
1. Liking your own posts. Self-proclaimed social media gurus say that's the first thing you should do because it will make your post show up in their news feeds. But you just shared it, so it's already in their news feeds. Besides, this is the real-world equivalent of talking to yourself and then giving yourself a high-five. Awkward.
2. Not engaging your community. It amazes me how something so simple eludes so many. Asking a question in your post is more likely to get people to participate and grow a conversation, and also get people to share because they're genuinely interested in what their friends think. You can skip the question and hope people start talking, but why take that risk?
3. Not responding to your community. You asked the question, you sparked the conversation and then ... crickets. Why wouldn't you respond? The real-world equivalent is standing in a group and saying nothing when people start talking to you. Nothing says "I'm not serious about social media" like not responding to your audience. And this goes for both positive and negative comments.
4. Cross-posting from Twitter to Facebook. Or, as I like to call it, the social media yawn. You shared it in one place, so you have to automatically share it in the others. Wrong. Remember: When you post duplicate content in multiple places, you give your audience permission to choose a network on which to follow instead of giving them a reason to follow you on more than one. Think about it: Why would I follow you on Twitter and Facebook if everything is always the same? But give me quality content in two places and I'll be happy to follow you in both places.
5. Writing too much text before hitting post. Twitter limits you to 140 characters, and even though Facebook is much more lenient, this isn't "War and Peace." Finding the right balance between saying too much and not saying enough comes with practice, but when in doubt less is more.
6. Spelling and grammar are important. "It's my page and if I want to spell something incorrectly, I'll do it." If I had a nickel for every time I heard that I'd honestly have a lot of nickels. No one is arguing that you should administer your page the way you want to administer it, but think big picture. What happens if a post you share goes viral? Do you really want your big break to feature a mistake? Your content is your content, and you should be proud enough of it to care about how it comes across.
Like any good Facebook post, the power is in the sharing. If you know someone who makes these mistakes, please share these tips with them. And if there's another mistake that drives you crazy that I didn't list here, let me know. I might mention it next time.
What questions do you have about social media? Tweet them to @scottkleinberg with hashtag #SoSocial. He might select yours for use in a future column.
