Death by # tag. Stop! Please. SOS!

It makes me twitch (honestly – you can ask my husband). The frivolous and careless disarray, where incredibly powerful # tags are bandied about as if they’re leftovers from last night’s Chinese take-away supper.  I’m referring, specifically, to the over-usage phenomenon.

The following 2 tweets are exact tweets I picked up on my Twitter feed today.

What amazes me about Social Media is how confidently we use it in our personal lives, but as soon as we are asked to represent a brand, or build followers, or develop sales leads, or engage with key influencers, our understanding of normality goes out of the window, and we break more than we build, crash more than we crusade.

Here’s a tip: Stop overthinking it! 

Using Social Media is not too different to how you would act in a real-life situation.

The Social Media Cocktail Party.

During my Social Media training classes, I often talk about the Cocktail Party. Here it is in a nutshell.

• Imagine that you’re arriving at a party.
• There may be some people you know, but for the most part, you don’t really know anyone.
• There are many you have heard about – and there are some who impress you so much that you’d do whatever you can, to get to know them.
• Once you’ve settled in, with a drink in hand, you start to circulate the room. You may join a group of people who are chatting, or you may choose to hang out at the bar and just watch what’s going on.
• For those that hangout, we call them social lurkers. They’re very much there, and they very much see what’s going on – even though they’re not engaging. They’re a silent force of opportunity that, with the right opportunity, may just come out of their shell and introduce you to something amazing.
• You decide to join a group of chatters. That group is made up of various personalities. Those who listen. Those who agree and encourage. Those who don’t agree, and debate why not, those who talk too much (and usually about themselves and the incredible things they’re doing) and those who are genuinely interesting to talk to (who usually share great stories, insight, information).

Each of these personalities represent a social media behaviour. And just the same that you would choose to engage, or avoid, a particular personality in real-life, so too is the result of great, or poor, social media etiquette.

And the over-use of too many # tags (called “hash” tags) is just one example of poor social media behaviour.

Here’s where it gets tricky.

Instagram loves a # tag. In fact, the more you use, the wider your audience coverage. But Instagram isn’t Twitter. And Facebook isn’t Instagram. And LinkedIn isn’t Facebook (so put those dating requests and “how many likes can we get for” requests away).

To be truly effective on social media – understand your medium.

It’s a wild world out there, with lots of competition. If you hold out any hope of mastering it, make sure you know your tools!

Need some advice? Give me a call and lets get you back on the right track!

#thanks.