Why a little social media knowledge can be a dangerous thing

Why a little social media knowledge can be a bad thing… #socialmedia #pr #essex

We can all use facebook… course we can.. what’s not to know? But actually there are a few little tricks that can get you seen all over the show that can cost you friends, customers and face… one of these is tagging.

For those of you who don’t not know what this is it is mentioning a page your have liked or a person you have connected with in a post so it broadcasts to everyone they know… actually it is extremely powerful and sends your stat sky high.. but is it a good thing to do? After all you are leveraging off their contacts…

This week someone tagged me.. actually it was by accident but at the time I didn’t know that and neither did they. Even worse.. they didn’t actually know what on earth it meant… so I generally respond with don’t spam response from a source that is obviously a company as was the case here and received an email from someone who was very angry at what I did publicly. I carefully responded saying what had happened and have had two very polite emails saying sorry… and they really did not realise what had happened.. and actually I believe them…

There are lots of potential pitfalls on any on-line medium and you really do need to know how to handle them. With the world and his wife (oh and probably their dog too) suddenly offering advice as social media experts who on earth do you trust? Well you could see how long they have had their twitter account for a start… less than 12 months old it is probably not a good start… and what is their background? Any PR or strategy in there… because actually using facebook and twitter really does need managing… what if someone says something that could be detrimental to you or your company? What if you accidently do something that is bad etiquette? Seriously… look at how long the social media manager has been doing both things… managing and using on-line for engaging.

I did not realise that the 12 years or more that I have been on-line promoting businesses was rare… but actually it does appear to be…
Check out your social media person’s twitter account here it tells you how long they have had their account (mine is just shy of 3 years.. ) and this is my second account… I deleted the first one having fallen flat on my face with and took ages to actually get my head around it… actually as more people can on board that became easier…

Ask questions… lots of them… if they have no idea or confused… or even worse… recommend only products that they earn an affiliate fee on… I may look around…

Social media is amazingly powerful… if you haven’t got the knowledge to get inside it find someone who has… but make sure they are the real deal and not just jumping on the bandwagon of one of the most powerful marketing mediums ever… it’s easy to check them out… ask those they have helped