twork scheme on the whiteboard” width=”1024″ height=”724″ class=”aligncenter size-large wp-image-6966″ />In a previous article we discussed ten good ways to avoid looking stupid on social media. You were also informed that there were many other ‘stupid’ social media practices many people practiced which were not covered in that first article. In order to help you avoid as many of these practices as possible, here are six more great ways to help you avoid looking stupid on social media.
1. Cool It With Automated Posts/Tweets
Scheduling tweets or having them automatically cross-post amongst several sites can be useful. But overdoing it is just plain annoying. You’re a human, not a robot- so stop acting like it! Craft real posts instead of posting a ton of automated ones. If you are going to post automated stuff, space it out. Don’t just post them one right after another. These posts are more likely to be seen, read, and clicked on if there is one or two versus dozens.
2. Don’t Overwhelm Followers
Many people are temped to put out as much information as they can in as short a time period as possible, assuming that more is always better. A word of advice? Don’t do it. You see, when people look on their news feed and see multiple posts from one person all in a row, they are much more likely to skip over all of them. It’s annoying, and you simply are not going to get any solid engagement that way.
3. Consistency Is Great, But Take A Break
You’ve heard that being consistent is the key to success in social media, but you probably haven’t heard it is imperative to take a break once in a while. Give your followers a chance to miss you. Now, this isn’t to say you should disappear for weeks at a time, but posting exactly nothing for one or two days every great once in a while is a really great idea.
4. Give More Than You Take
To properly utilize social media (and avoid looking stupid while doing it) you need to give more than you take. Everyone is always asking for favors that help push them further on the road to personal success. For the most part, these people will not be remembered or thought of after the favor has been completed. It is the ones who give back that will be remembered, and you definitely want that to be you.
5. Getting Personal Without Being Stupid
Sometimes it is okay to share personal details. Milestones such as anniversaries, birthdays, new births, etc. are fine to share. Little details about your life, such as what you generally enjoy or dislike, are also fine to share. What you don’t want to do is share either super-private information or make a fool of yourself. For starters, never share your home address, personal phone number, social security number, etc. Also be sure to never craft posts on anything socially taboo, or anything offensive. Things which are considered social taboo or offensive include politics, religion, racism, sexism, etc.
6. Engage, Engage, Engage!
You can not simply post and leave it at that. You absolutely must engage your audience. Like their comments on your own posts, and take the time to respond to at least a handful of them. Comment on other people’s posts, like and share their stuff. Engagement is key, not only to avoid looking stupid but also for social media to be effective in any form.
Conclusion
If you want to avoid looking stupid on social media, implementing these six tips (along with the ten listed in the previous article) is a good place to start. While each thing by itself may not seem like much, remember that even the smallest steps in the right direction can help significantly boost engagement levels.
