Any active member of a social media community will tell you there are certain rules and policies for the site. They vary from community to community, but some of the basic ones are don’t over self-promote and don’t be a troll.
If you don’t already know, a troll is someone who posts intentionally inflammatory remarks on a community forum or social media site. The entire goal of a troll is merely to tick people off, and they usually are successful.
The self-promotion thing is also pretty standard. Feel free to share your stuff, but don’t make it all about how you’re the lord and master of the online marketing universe or whatever.
Many social media sites have active members who have created multi-way avenues of information sharing. The idea behind the sites is not to be a broadcast center, but to serve as a hub of free-flowing information. There’s give and take from the communities’ best members.
Think back to the early days of peer-to-peer file sharing. Not too early, mind you, but let’s think of Napster as a starting point.
Many of those file sharing programs, legal or not, rated or measured users based on their download to upload ratio. If a user downloaded more than they uploaded (grabbed more than they shared), their score would be dinged.
It’s similar with social media etiquette, but reversed. Don’t upload more than you comment on, retweet, forward others’ work. There needs to be a relative balance between how much you broadcast your own messages and how much you sphinn, digg, retweet and comment on other people’s work that you find interesting and relevant.
People take notice when they see you retweet their blog post. They may even start to follow, based on good-will alone. Your goal on a social media site should be to become a respected and well-followed member of the community – not someone broadcasting from a soapbox.
The last thing you want to do is drive people away from your social media profile. You’re there to communicate and participate, so do that! Just remember that communication is a two-way street of give and take. Don’t let your self-promotion/other content promotion ratio inhibit how effective your communication strategy can be.
By: Zack S.
Tags: communication strategy, retweet blog post, social media community, social media etiquette, troll
