Social Media Resolutions

Ask anyone who works in social media (because it really is an employment option, I promise!) what their biggest pet peeve is, and I can promise it will be the misuse of social media, followed by grammar mistakes. So in 2013, let’s all make a few social media resolutions together:

• Stop posting your Instagram photos to Twitter – it’s a pain to click through. Twitter has photo filters now, too. 
• Edit the caption on your Pinterest posts. If you don’t have a kid, don’t keep the caption, “totally doing this for little Billy!”
• Don’t like your own status. Ever.
• Use proper grammar on Facebook. You don’t have a character count or excuse.
• Be smart. This goes for company accounts, too. Hurricanes are not good excuses to shop, and it is never okay to mock a tragedy.
• If a status becomes a conversation, take it to your timeline or messages. Or just expect no one to ever comment on your status again. Your choice!
• Don’t drink and Facebook. Drink and Tweet instead.
• Remember, you can remove someone from your Newsfeed without unfriending them. It will save you plenty of headaches.
• For the love of God, STOP USING HASHTAGS ON FACEBOOK. If that means you have to create two messages in Hootsuite/Sprout Social/ETC, by all means, do it.

Are you making any social media resolutions this year? Personally, I’m trying to cut back on texting.

Top 5: Posts I Wish People Would Avoid on Social Media

OK – I may take some heat for this, but as a social media manager, I literally spend 8 hours a day with Facebook and Twitter open on my desktop. I see EVERYTHING. So, I’m going to sum up the top 5 most ridiculous things I see:

1. “Going to X/Hanging with X”: OK – Isn’t that what foursquare is for? It drives me nuts to see a Facebook status say “going to the grocery store” or “hanging with my friend.” It’s the old-fashion (as in 2009) rule, if you don’t have anything interesting to say, don’t say anything at all.

2. Photos of themselves: Seriously, that was cool in 2005. Stop with the Instagram pictures of you posing in a mirror, or in a tanning bed, or in your car. It makes you look conceited and gives people the impression that you’re an attention whore.

3. “OMG this is so #Freaking cool, I’m going to post it from @Hootsuite to Facebook, too!” Learn to differentiate your networks. It kills me when I see this on a personal account, but brands? Good lord.

4. “LIKE if…” That is the quickest way to get me to defriend you or unfollow your brand. Just don’t.

5. Chain Letters: Why can’t these things die already? I still haven’t died from the letter I didn’t send in 7th grade. I found true love after midnight. If you found yourself posting something you forwarded when you were 12, STOP.

What pet-peeves do you have with social media? Comment below!