#FAIL: The Most Common Mistakes in Social Media Abstract: There's not one right way to use social

media, but there are plenty of wrong ways. Don't miss this opportunity to see which missteps keep you from connecting effectively with your audience. Top 5 (+1) Social Media Mistakes 1. Assuming everyone who likes you on Facebook sees your Facebook posts a. EdgeRank Facebook's algorithm for selecting content to display in users News Feed (http://edgerankchecker.com/blog/2012/04/what-is-edgerank/) b. EdgeRank decides what is important for a specific user based on 3 components: i. Affinity: The number of times the person has interacted with your Page ii. Weight: The number of times the person has interacted with that type of content 1. Share > Comment > Like iii. Recency: The time since the specific piece of content was posted 1. In January, average lifespan of a Facebook post was around 3 hours. (http://bit.ly/Al616W) 2. Lifespan can be increased by greater EdgeRank or by active sharing. c. Bottom line: More engaging content will reach more people who like you (& in general) 2. Posting to Facebook using third-party tools a. Facebook content published via 3rd-party tools suffers 67% fewer likes & 60% fewer clicks (via HubSpot: http://bit.ly/Hgckmw) b. Trend originally reported in Sept. 2011 c. Penalty reported fixed in Dec. 2011 d. Trend re-emerged in April 2012 e. Unclear if this is still an issue, but bottom line: Just use Facebook i. Scheduling future posts is now available in Facebook 3. Starting a tweet with @ a. Twitter treats this as a reply to @username, regardless of content or context http://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/status/190639412604968960 b. The tweet is only displayed in the feed of your followers who also follow @username https://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/statuses/250278779702874112 c. Bottom line: Dont start tweets with @. d. Common solutions: Insert a period (.) before @, rewrite the tweet 4. Including non-alphanumeric characters in hashtags a. Punctuation breaks a hashtag, EXCEPT for underscores https://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/statuses/250281537529057280 b. Differs by service: All numbers isnt a hashtag on Twitter, but is a hashtag on Instagram

5. Running contests on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines a. Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps. b. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotions registration or entry mechanism. c. You must not use Facebook features or functionality (such as the Like button) as a voting mechanism for a promotion. d. You must acknowledge that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, administered by, or associated with Facebook. 6. Automated Tweets a. Look like spam - http://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/status/190640326468308992 b. Are spam - http://twitter.com/CityofTampa/status/196971901162225664 c. Get cut off - http://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/status/190639728259903489 d. Give no context - https://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/statuses/250320540504559616 e. Confuse - http://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/status/195872579498676224 f. Get broken - http://twitter.com/ThomAtHome/status/195877231246057472 g. Bottom line: Virtually everything we do to make less work for ourselves (as marketers) makes more work for our audience (and they aint here to work) Thom Atkinson (@ThomAtHome) Social Media Strategist IU Communications Indiana University tgatkins@indiana.edu September 25, 2012