There are lots of folks learning about social media, starting blogs, using Twitter, connecting with friends on Facebook. This is all very exciting to me as I remain a big fan of the potential for Inbound Marketing. To illustrate, there is a new blog created every second and that equates to roughly 900,000 blogs created in the last 24 hours.
Hockey stick growth.
With all the interest in Blogging and Social Media, entrepreneurs are busy creating great new technologies and digital services that improve upon the experience. However, with all the exciting growth there are some challenges that unfortunately can potentially short circuit some of the true intention for Social Media – the digital development and nurturing of authentic and transparent relationships. There is this unnatural and unrealistic desire to become instantaneous experts at Social Media. In my mind, it’s no different from the desire to lose a significant amount of weight overnight with a pill, rather than a healthy dose of diet and exercise over time. Services such as Socialoomph (used to be called Tweetlater.com) or EasyTweets which provide automated functionality to follow back anyone who follows you, plus automated welcome messaging, etc. There are services that automate the adding of followers (Twittlow, Tweecha, etc.) and much much more. This new industry of TwitterBots has been booming. Back in August Mashable noted that roughly 24% of all Tweets are from Bots, rather than from humans. I assume that percentage has unfortunately gone up since then. I’m not saying all TwitterBots are bad, rather I remain cautiously suspect of the value specific TwitterBots provide individual users and the overall community.
My suggestion is that it’s time to stop and rethink your strategy. There is no race to the finish line. Be mindful that Social Media is NOT an ad campaign – it is about you/your company and the relationships you create and nurture. Artificial angles will be noticed. Take a quick read of a post I wrote on an effective social media strategy.
Let’s face it – the lines between personal and work continue to blur and fade. No longer are most of us working specific hours as mobile devices keep us connected. This carries over to our Social Media relationships as well. Are there business-only Facebook friends? If you friend your kids to watch them, should you friend your kid’s friends – assuming you are using Facebook to connect with business associates as well?
All good questions.
My suggestion is to embrace the new now. Get over the paradigm shift as fast as you can and quickly learn how to confront the Social Media meshing of business and personal. It’s the current reality with lots of challenges to deal with. Just remember to be smart, authentic, and strategic as it is very likely the decisions you make today will remain with you for some time. For example, don’t post pictures from your weekend skinny dipping party as potential business partners will find them and look at you differently.
Five User Experience Suggestions Regarding Automating Blog and Social Media Posting to Facebook
1) Do not substitute automation for real life networking. I believe some automation is good as I use tools to automatically post my blog to Twitter, Facebook, etc. This provides enormous efficiency and value, if used correctly. However, I do see much abuse of automation tools which, quite frankly, is a user experience no-no. Remember Social Networking is trying to uniquely complement the complexities of real life networking. In other words, there are real relationships here and you should act accordingly. That includes participating and sharing in the community.
2) Match your audience’s interest in the content with an appropriate level of automation. This is usually dependent on matching the content written with an understanding of the audience you are reaching through the service you are using. For example, automating your Facebook news feed with personal @ messages from Twitter is not a good user experience. I suggest spending time engaging in content posted by friends on each service you want to automate to understand and appreciate a desired user experience for your content. See the list below for specifics:
a) Direct @ Messages (Ex. congrats on your promotion, etc.) – No automation… private messages work best here
b) Blog Posts – Yes automation is good, just label them as “New Blog Post”
c) Great articles/videos/etc. – Yes – automation works, just make sure to customize your message (don’t just automatically retweet) so it speaks appropriately to your audience
d) Minute by Minute Updates (Ex. I am at the Wine Bar in SOHO) – No, automation does not work here as it is highly likely several of your Facebook friends do not care. Setup separate permission-only lists or accounts to blast these types of messages out to smaller groups.
e) Links to your Twitter feeds – No, automation to update your Facebook status with a link to your Twitter feed is not a good user experience. Alternatively, try and convince your Facebook friends to follow you on Twitter.
f) Other Facebook applications (birthday reminders, books read, movies seen, etc) – My suggestion is to review item 1 (above) and make individual determinations (based upon each application) whether it makes sense to automate posting the updates to Facebook.
3) Test Your Automated Updates, Regularly. I know this seems rather obvious, yet many get surprised at how often things break.
4) Do Not Delegate the Human Element, Especially Through Automation. I know I must sound like a broken record. However, many busy professionals are taking the route of hiring a less expensive “brandividual,” or someone who is the voice of them or their company. I am not a fan of this practice, especially as the lines of business and personal continue to blur.
5) You Can Be Yourself With Automation. Using bots to improve the Social Media experience is great – this is what great technology is all about. However, it is important to make sure you remember that you, your knowledge, your expertise, your friendships, your influence, your experience, and so on – these are the reasons your social capital is growing along with your social circles. Don’t let automation and short-sighted thinking compromise that.
6) Monitor and Measure Automation. I would argue one of the most important aspect is to monitor and measure all activities you put in place, especially anything that is automated. Automation should only be used if it is working and you are meeting your predefined objectives. This can be done through the use of simple tools such as Bit.ly or Google Alerts. Investing time growing a social strategy without measurement is a waste.
Feel free to post your comments and experiences about automation. I would enjoy reading them.
