The big thing now for building an online presence and generating inbound links is social networking. You can do yourself more harm than good, however, if you don’t watch your step.
Many social networking sites are made up of distinct demographics, the old timers who have been there forever are fiercely territorial, and if you tick off the bigwigs you will be out on the pavement with a warning never to return. Here are five things NOT to do when working on your social profile.
1. Don’t be fake. Don’t misrepresent yourself, don’t make up a bunch of identities and have multiple accounts, don’t post phony comments. You will be found out and kicked to the curb.
2. Don’t post short inanities like ‘good point! Hey, I wrote something about this too – you can read it here’ over and over. This is spammy, and people don’t appreciate it.
3. Don’t take, take, take. Give a little. Read other people’s stuff, vote and link, be a member of the community. A suck on the community is rarely tolerated.
4. Don’t just leap in without doing a little research. Lurk for a while, then start slow but post regularly. Don’t link every time, and link to other stuff besides your own writing.
5. Don’t use social sites for sales pitches. People go to sales sites for sales pitches and to social sites to socialize, so don’t walk into the room and start in with your spiel. You can hand out a card here or there, discreetly, but don’t be the dude that sells Amway. Seriously.
If you have the time to do social networking right, or the money to pay someone to do it right, great. If not, don’t waste your time and everyone else’s.
Tags: links, social networks, spam