Several years ago, when busy people were looking for ways to save time with social media, they relied on programs like Ping.com to automate their content.
Post a status update and Ping could push it out to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the other sites you see in the photo at left, with just a click of the mouse.
At the time, it seemed like a good idea. But something started to happen.
People who followed a particular expert on several social media sites started to see the same content over and over again. It became all too obvious that the expert was pushing out identical content on multiple social media platforms.
On LinkedIn, for example, I’m seeing people complain frequently about the maddening stream of tweets that others are feeding into LinkedIn, which is strictly for business networking. These include those brain-numbing updates about when people are waking up, eating breakfast, starting their work day, and picking their kids up from soccer practice.
That minutae is bad enough. But creating noise by pushing it onto LinkedIn is a sin.
Enough, already!
I stopped feeding my WordPress blog into my Facebook fan page because the automatic status updates made it impossible for me to write a compelling tease that really pulled people into the post and made them click.
The Benefits of Separate Status Updates
By manually promoting a blog post on Faceboook, I can do this:
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I can do the same type of status update on LinkedIn for the same blog post, but I can write the teaser a little differently.
In my Twitter feed, or my Facebook profile, I can also share more personal tidbits that don’t belong on LinkedIn.
I can pull followers from one social media site to another by telling my LinkedIn visitors that if they want a list of tips on how to solve a business problem, then can visit my Facebook Fan Page and Like the page.
Have you stopped automating social media content? Why or why not? Have you stopped following people who push out their content across multiple sites?
Or is automation a valuable time-saver that you refuse to give up?
More Tips Like This on May 7 at Author U
I’ll be explaining more about how to use traditional and social media to promote when I present a two-and-a-half-hour workshop at Author U in Denver, Col. If you can’t afford plane fare, that’s OK. Host Judith Briles is recording the entire two-day session, and you can buy the recordings.
Oh, yes, I’ve noticed the automation. I use it somewhat but never on my LinkIn account! I do post separately now on FB and Twitter. My website pages can be linked to FB and Twitter. I only do it for Twitter when I update a page. On FB, to use your phrase, the “tease” or lead in, needs to be a different. My followers are a different group of people in each place and need to be conversed with differently.
Bev
Exactly. No problem sending out an automatic tweet when you update a page. Your followers might appreciate that.
I completely agree and have been saying the same thing for quite some time. Automation removes the “social” from social media. And, as you pointed out, you will annoy many users and lost the ability to tailor your message to the specific platform.
Joan, I used to feed my entire Twitter stream into Facebook, but people were complaining about the Twitterese and personal conversations. So now I use the Selective Twitter app, which allows me to designate particular tweets to post to Facebook (by typing #fb) and/or LinkedIn (#in). This has worked out very nicely.
I still feed my blog automatically, but if I want to call attention to a particular post, I’l wait a few tweets and then post my own teaser.
–Shel Horowitz, primary author, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green
This is a nice alternative to feeding all your tweets into Facebook. I’ve used this, too, Shel.
Thanks for this great article, which I’ve shared on Facebook, etc. I agree: the big three (FB, Twitter and Linked In) have different audiences and deserve a different approach. I’ve been a Publicity Hound since 2007 and find your information invaluable.
Thanks for being a loyal Publicity Hound, Rosanne!
Can I tell ya, you’ll be getting some RTs later. 😉 Read one post, and had to click this one. I am a big opponent of automation. Auto-DMs, auto-follows, preprogrammed automated blind RTs, etc… all big NOs in my book. What you’re talking about is what I’d consider syncing or cross-posting and I am admittedly guilty.
My FriendFeed is my Twitter 2, but does anyone read? I schedule many of my tweets; totally manual, reading before I do it. I do cross post that one tweet of a blog entry to my LinkedIn update. That’s where it ends.
I’ve also seen folks blow up the LI with too many status updates, not to mention all their tweets.. then some FB pollution too. I have a post drafted on this, meaning you’ll get a pingback someday if I ever finish. I use these networks differently; different goals, audiences and agendas and so on. I haven’t totally unfollowed some people, but I do pay less attention to what I see as automated. FWIW.
I, too, have wondered how effective FriendFeed is. Love the phrase “Facebook pollution.”
Thanks for sharing, Davina.
Oh I agree – times have changed! The problem is I can’t figure out how to turn off the link between FB and Twitter. I find lots of posts on how to integrate them but nothing about where to go to stop the FB => Twitter posting.
I’m Joan Stewart’s virtual assistant and I was guest on a webinar she hosted on how to use Facebook.
Diane, you have to go into your edit page and take a look at your apps. It you have the app that feeds your FB postings into Twitter, remove it.
I have been try to stress the point to my clients to stop auto-feeding and stop the auto-DMs for Twitter. It is a waste of time and eventually folks will stop following you.
For more of these tips, see me at http://serenityva.com/products-page/.