Top 10 Reasons What You’re Doing in Social Media Isn’t Working

It gives me great pleasure to welcome my good Twitter friend Carla Young as a guest in my Expert Series with her thoughts on where you could be going wrong in your social media activities.

If you would like to find out more about Carla, founder and publisher of MOMeo Magazine, you can connect with her on Twitter, on Google+ and on Facebook.

Top 10 Reasons What You’re Doing in Social Media Isn’t Working

1. Consistency

Social media is not (I repeat NOT) an instant, quick fix, one hit wonder! Success at social media requires consistency. That means showing up every day and sharing your message over and over again (in different ways so as not to become repetitive and boring).

2. Uninteresting

What you are sharing is (YAWN) uninteresting. What qualifies as interesting, you ask? Funny, touching, helpful, factual, important, or relevant information (or at least that’s a good place to start). Oh…and anything about chocolate (you think I’m kidding about this, but trust me, I’m not).

3. Oversharing

Not the kind of oversharing that gets filed under TMI (Too Much Information). The other kind: too much about you. Check out MY site, visit ME on Facebook, join MY newsletter, listen to MY podcast. More participation and engagement and less blah, blah, blah about you!

4. Wrong Audience

Ask yourself this simple question: is what I am sharing a fit for the audience I am connecting with on social media? If all your followers are high tech business types, chances are they won’t be interested in your personal growth story on your blog. Find the audience that appreciates what you have to say.

5. Too Many Characters

The rule of thumb is to keep it under 120 to make it easy for people to retweet you (RT @YourName typically eats up about 20 characters). If you can get your message across in even fewer characters, even better because it allows for retweets of retweets and for your followers to add their two cents too!

6. Bad Timing

If every tweet you post is in a 30-minute tweet-a-thon at 12 o’clock at night, chances are you are only going to reach other insomniacs and people in an entirely different time zone who are just waking up. Perfect if they are your target audience – otherwise consider tweeting throughout the day.

7. All Talking, No Listening

One of the absolutely best ways to succeed in social media comes from listening in and finding out what people are currently talking about and addressing that in your content. Not only does it guarantee that you are tapping into a topic that people care about, but it positions you as the expert on the topic!

8. The Same Old Thing

Unlike my 6-year-old who can eat the same grilled cheese sandwich for lunch day in, day out, social media followers value fresh and new. That means posting the same old content, regardless of how successful it was the first time you posted it, isn’t going to work.

9. Mediocre at Best

Social media is nothing if not honest. The statistics don’t lie – if your content sucks (and by sucks, I mean anything short of amazing), the clicks will show it. That holds true for retweets, likes, stumbles, and comments. Silence means you didn’t do your job in the content creation department.

10. Sharable Fail

Assuming you get everything else right and your followers and fans retweet and repost your link like crazy and flock to your site in droves, the last point of failure is in sharability. Don’t make it difficult for your readers to share you back to social media!

Many thanks to Carla for her interesting and informative post. Have you had bad experiences with social media and wasted your time on useless activities? Please do share your experiences and let us know what you think of Carla’s advice.

Carla, publisher of MOMeo Magazine.com, an online resource publication for work-at-home moms, lives and works (from home). If you would like to find out more about her you can find her (most days and many nights) on Twitter @CarlaYoung. She is the proud (and totally biased) mother of one very precocious daughter, a loving wife to one very lucky husband, and a supporter of moms everywhere who want to build a lifestyle business that gives them the flexibility to work-from-home and raise a family.

She is a believer that the best business training isn’t in the classroom or the boardroom, but the playroom where she hones her business skills on a daily basis. Want marketing help? Try upselling a toddler on carrot sticks instead of cookies. Need to negotiate a contract? Try talking a reluctant preschooler into washing her hair. She shares her time management, motivation and practical business tips for mom entrepreneurs as well as the trials and tribulations of balancing work, family and a little bit of playtime for mommy at MOMeo Magazine, an online resource publication for work-at-home moms.

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Many thanks for visiting The Top 10 Blog – hope to see you again soon!

*Image Credits

Failed – arztsamui / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dislike - Sean MacEntee Flickr

Closing eyes and ears – photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Carla courtesy of Carla