Posted by on Feb 15, 2011 in Social Media | 3 comments

Do you talk to your boss the same way you talk to your BFF? Do you call a potential employer as often as you chat with a coworker?

Hopefully, the answers to these questions is no. So why do people think  it’s all right to broadcast the same messages to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?  It is so easy to link your feeds together using HootSuite and then just “set it and forget it” by blasting all of your updates to all of your social networks. Fight that urge to take the easy way out. Here are just a few reasons why treating all networks the same is undermining your social media success:

  • A status update like “OMG, was soooo wasted last night” is a pretty common sight on Facebook, but it’s not so appropriate in the more public and professional worlds of Twitter and LinkedIn. Likewise, your frat buddies might not care much about your great new blog post, but your LinkedIn audience sure does!
  • Each of the social networks has its own rhythm and pace. It’s not uncommon for someone on Twitter to post 50 times a day or more. Imagine pushing that all to your LinkedIn, where most people only post once a week. You can completely swamp someone’s feed with the constant barrage of useless information–causing them to hide all of your status updates. Even the good ones.
  • Hashtags, @ signs, and RTs are all characteristics of just one social network: Twitter. By pushing your Twitter updates to the other social networks, you run a very high risk of confusing people with its idiosyncratic language.

If you’re going to do social media, please take the time to do it right. It’s fine to just focus on one network–and in fact, it’s a great idea. But if you want to have a hand in each of them, craft messages that properly address each network, with the right frequency and the right lingo.

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  • http://www.asiontheweb.net Jake Anderson

    Absolutely! I hear a lot of people talk about this, but it’s nice to see a post that says it quickly and to the point. Nothing is more annoying then reading the same thing over and over again. Thanks for a great post!

  • http://woodsmel.wordpress.com/ Melanie Woods

    Could not agree more! I get that it can be convenient to link your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, but I have never understood it. I especially like what you said about the pacing of each network. I will sometimes udpate to Twitter and LinkedIn at the same time if it’s something relevant to both sites. However, people who sync the two constantly just clog my LinkedIn newsfeed and I usually end blocking their updates.

    As a communication professional, it’s an interesting lesson ins tailoring your message to the right audience and using the right channel. There’s something to be said for not oversaturating your market, even if your market is your friends and family.

  • Pingback: Tweets that mention Understand your network | Roundpeg Small Business Marketing | Roundpeg | Small Business Marketing | Indianapolis -- Topsy.com

  • http://www.lorraineball.com Lorraine Ball

    We often find people are more interested in looking for the easiest way to do something rather then the best. It is easy to link, but less effective. So if you are using social media for business, take the time to use it well, or don’t use it.