This happens to us as “persons”, but also any time we make brand building on the Social Media for our business or for the company where we are employed. Online we can build effective and long lasting job relationships, we can hunt new great clients. More and more HR officers are using Internet to sort out certain kind of “heads hunting” matters.
This is somehow good, it shortens distances and breaks down lot of barriers, making possible interactions between people that otherwise would be impossbile. It’s an opportunity that each of us should use the best way possbile. Without making some common mistakes that compromise our credibility.
A positive behavior on the Social Network is one of the elements that influence more people checking our profiles. So let’s pay attention to the attitude that we show, because it really can make a difference – even more when we’re using tools like Facebook both for personal and business issues.
But… what are the most common fails that people and companies do when using Facebook?
Let’s have a look!
1. Confusing conventional formats of the language
It happens mostly when we make intensive use of Facebook and Twitter at the same time. Of course, because one of the most recurrent incoherences in language is nothing else than… using the hashtags (#) of Facebook! Hashtags are widely used on Twitter, because they have a precise semantic function, that on Facebook is completely useless. And people don’t like useless elements that disturb the comprehention of a message. So, as a general rule, it’s better to manage Facebook and Twitter separately and use the most appropriate language for each one.
2. The contents’ duplication
We have a message to share. We want to share it both on our company’s page and on our personal profile. That’s fine… but how many times we just made a copy/paste and shared the same message, in the same shape, twice or more one next to the other in our friends’ timeline? Pushing too much with the same message is everything but effective. Most of times, just a small variation in presenting the same content on different profiles and pages is enough to avoid the duplication mistake. Pay attention!
3. Invading the friends’ profile with “tagged” images
Lot of fails happen about the way we share images with our friends. The most common? Using the “tag” function even if no people appear in our image. This way, we’re forcing a picture to be shown on our friends’ diaries… most of times without asking permission! And you never know… maybe your friend is not likely to show your advertising flyer on his personal profile. As well as receiving lot of comment notifications about a picture where he’s not appearing. On the other hand, many people will be happy to share a creative image passing a consistent message. Create “call to actions”, not “forced actions”!
4. “Come! Buy! … Hey, consider me!”
If what you propose is really something standing out, if you have something relevant to say, people will notice even if you don’t shout. So for instance, when you’re advertising an event the right strategy will not be posting a “Come to my event!” ten times a day – anticipating amazing things that people will find at your event will bring many more participants.
5. Sharing negativity, highlighting your bad mood
Of course, days where you’re not at the top of the game happen. And the temptation of looking for commiseration on Facebook is sometime very huge. But think about it: is this the idea of you that you’d like to spread among your friends? The idea of somebody always complaining, or always busy complicating things, is not the most attractive. What if, right that day, somebody from the company where you just sent your CV decide to check how is your Facebook profile? Much better to be positive, easy, direct… and to leave everything else out of the Internet.