Facebook and Twitter are social media tools that can improve your personal and professional life greatly. One false move, however, and you can kiss your social media reputation goodbye, warns social media strategist Shai Cooper.
Cooper owns Fleur, a virtual assistant company that coordinates social media campaigns for individuals. Cooper spoke to rolling out during the Blogging While Brown convention in Los Angeles, where savvy bloggers from all over the country huddle to exchange ideas once a year.
Twitter Sins
1. Don’t tweet in all caps.
2. Don’t auto DM (Direct Message) followers.
“Auto DMs are the worst things ever. Don’t auto DM. It seems non-authentic, and it hurts.”
3. Don’t use tweet verification.
“The tweet verification … Don’t verify me. I’m not a bot. As you can see, I speak with many people. I don’t need to be verified, and you shouldn’t be verified either.”
4. Don’t ignore your followers.
“Twitter is an open platform for you to meet people you wouldn’t normally socialize with, to find people in the same range of interests that you have, and there’s no need for you not to be social or to only tweet at people and not with people.”
Facebook Sins
5. Don’t super-tag: “If you’re promoting something, and you tag 500 people in it, that is the biggest Facebook sin.”
6. Don’t tag photos without permission.
“Don’t ever, ever tag someone who doesn’t want to be tagged in a photo. And if they ask you to take them out and un-tag them, please do. That’s just common courtesy. Sometimes, people are using their Facebook just on a professional basis, and they don’t want to have childhood connections tag them in pictures from when they’re in their Brownie [uniform].
They want to maintain a professional standard. So, please don’t tag them in old photos unless you have their permission. You should always ask someone, ‘Can I tag you in these pictures?’ or you post them and say, ‘I put some pictures of you up. Do you want me to tag you or not?’ ”
7. Don’t break up on Facebook.
“Breaking up online is a sin. The break-up is always a person-to-person thing. Don’t do it over the phone. Don’t do it over a text message. Don’t tweet it. That’s the worst thing ever. If you’ve had a relationship with someone, whether it was a personal relationship or a professional relationship, and you’ve met them in person, then you should break it off in person.”
On that note, we asked Shai Cooper if Facebook was facilitating a lot of breakups. “Facebook can be what you make of it. If you’re unsteady in your relationship, and your husband or boyfriend only has female friends, it will drive a wedge between you,” she says.
“The voice is real, and it happens. If you don’t trust your spouse enough to trust your Facebook activities, then you’re doing something wrong on Facebook.”
Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In are important social tools that bring people together as well, Cooper adds, if they’re utilized in the proper manner.
–zondra hughes
