ReactionDynamics

My social media experience has been (is being) formed by interaction on several popular social networks. It changes daily, but there’s a few things I’ve noticed that one should probably avoid doing.

Of course, I don’t wish to sound preachy, so take this with a pinch of salt. Social Media is what you make of it, after all.

1. Don’t Use Your Service as a Megaphone Only

This is a big one for me. The first word in Social Media is social, meaning creating and maintaining relationships and discussion around various content, users, friends, etc. If you don’t reciprocate, how can you expect to keep those relationships, or stimulate discussion? Unless you’re strictly breaking news, megaphoning will distance you from the people who actually like you.

2. Don’t Lie

With today’s internet, people can access information about you with suprising ease, therefore it can sometimes be trivial to fact check people against their claims. Especially if you’re looking for work, don’t ever lie online, it may cost you that cushy new job.

3. Don’t Be Intolerant

People from all walks of life frequent social media networks. If you harbor any hateful or resentful feelings against people of any race, religion (or lack thereof) or sexual persuasion, it’s best to leave it at home. There’s nothing wrong with polite debate, but outright slander is an easy way to ensure your message is ignored, and your audience is thoroughly reduced.

4. Don’t Spam Your Feeds

Some companies and marketing individuals often request that you add them to your feed, appearing like they wish to be genuine contacts, then proceed to fill your feed with ad after ad. Others simply tweet link after link to their blog posts or content without break. In the case of Twitter at least, it’s extremely hard as a follower to hide this activity without blocking. Spamming will almost always lead to a blocking / un-following and a bad reputation.

5. Don’t Leave Your Profile/Bio Empty

Believe it or not, people do wish to know a bit about you, and even visit your site. Make sure you fill in your profiles and bios with clear, concise information about who you are and what you do. If job-seeking, ensure you add a bit about your skills.

In recent months, Twitter has got something of a beating from bloggers worldwide about frequent downtime, feature reductions and timeouts.

Originally, I was dismayed and somewhat (perhaps irrationally) angry at the ongoing Twitter problems, but strangely, and unlike many bad services in the past, I didn’t drop Twitter. It was only after a long think about why I’m still on Twitter.

Then it hit me. I’m on Twitter still because of it’s ease of use, the 3rd party tools around it, and the people I follow that encapsulate my interest. Identi.ca is conceptually just as good, being an open platform, but there’s something not quite as interesting as Twitter about it, and I guess it boils down to the myriad following Twitter has.

Twitter has gained a massive following, from bread and butter users, to businesses, government, and developers. Followers using the service remain closer to the individuals/activist groups/news outlets/brands/companies/bands or whatever else they enjoy. Useful services have been built on it’s API, which although suffering from Twitter’s problems, is robust enough to accommodate development, giving back far more than Twitter itself and adding value to the community.

Think of all the services that revolve around or add to Twitter. There’s Summize (recently acquired by Twitter), Tweetstats, Twitterfeed, amongst many, many others. Through clever use of these tools, businesses can use Twitter to analyze trends online, position themselves appropriately, and hear what people are saying about them.

These points are why people remain on Twitter, not just for the personal frippery, but for the relationships between individuals and business that can and are built on the system. It’s not perfect, but it works. For now.