The Anti-Social Media

I hate when people link their online accounts because I hate redundancy.  If I see the same message from you on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I know you have no clue who you are writing for.  Even worse, you’ve just wasted ten seconds of my life reading the same boring message about your bacon cheeseburger cravings.

While there is some aspects of linking that are debatable, the other aspect of account linking I hate is when other services start leeching off of that network to build theirs.  Case in point: Foursquare.

When I signed up for Foursquare, I linked my Facebook and my Twitter accounts to Foursquare.  I was dumb and naive.  I had no idea what would eventually happen.

While I appreciated the ability to find new people to connect with quickly, I soon realized that I get a lot of messages from people who I follow or follow me on Twitter that I don’t know outside of 140 characters.  I can’t vouch for these people the 23 hours of the day they aren’t sending messages into the internet.

Foursquare defaults its privacy settings to share your e-mail and phone number with the people you designate as friends on its service.  While that could work well for people you know in real life, it’s scary for the multitude of people on there you aren’t as familiar with.  I like my Twitter friends, but I don’t need them calling me up everyday.

It boils down to this simple question: Do I know you in real life?  If you can answer that as yes, then I might consider having you as a Foursquare friend.  If the answer is maybe or no, just leave me alone.  I’ll be better off not knowing when you check into a strip club.

Thinking trolls look like that makes me feel much better about my internet life.

What the F@%& is my Social Media Strategy?:

Do you need a social media strategy?  Have you tried this:

Build loyalty & increased engagement through ongoing conversation and brand experience 

Or what about this?

Amplify word of mouth by motivating influencers

Or even this:

Facilitate audience conversations and drive engagement with social currency 

Then you might want to check out What the F@%& is My Social Media Strategy.  Or you could check out my guide to building a social media strategy.

I’m having a terrible time writing a post for today.  The whole idea behind cutting back on posting was so I can give my ideas a little more time to breathe, and here I am without a single good idea to write about.

So, I’m going to write about what to do when you have nothing to write about. Here are some topics that never get old to write about.  Use them when nothing else works.

• Crazy Pet stories - Most of us own some pet in out lifetime, whether it’s a dog, cat, or poison dart frog.  Write about how your animal is better, worse, or funnier.  People will come if for nothing else than the cute photos.
• Social Media Strategy - Everyone either has one or doesn’t, and it’s a great buzz term with absolutely no meaning.
• Crazy E-mails - I get weird e-mails all the time.  I wish I could share them all without alienating my readers with legitimate questions.  But when someone includes this emoticon ( ~ ) in the first sentence, you know it’s going to be terrible in a good way.

What kinds of things do you blog about when you’re brain runs dry?  Do you wait to blog until you have a good idea, or do you churn something out?  I want to know what you do.

Oh, and here’s an obligatory adorable cat photo.

Congratulations to the winners of my first Social Media Advice contest.

• Karl Sakas
• Jeff Francoeur
• Renewabelle
• Kokomolady
• Jody Brown

I will be in touch with you all soon about this will work.

If you want social media advice for free, you’ll have to wait until I run another contest.  If you’re willing to pay though, contact me and we can work something out.

If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?

And would you tweet about it?

There’s a lot of crappy social media in the world.  Between the people who “get it” and those who aren’t even on Facebook, lie a huge swatch of people figuring it out.  Instead of complaining hoping people read a post and make it better, I’m going to take a more proactive approach.

I’m offering two free hours of social media consulting to five lucky people who comment on this blog about why they need help with their social media.

That’s right.  I’m giving away the chance to pick my brain, and make a social media strategy that works for you.  What other people charge bundles for you can get for free.  Whether you want to get more followers, get better followers, or sell stuff, I’ll help you out.*

Did I say it’s free?  If you hate my advice, you just as easily ignore it with no cost to you.  The risk is minimal and you have the entire internet to gain.

What do you have to lose?

Enter by leaving a comment below about why you want or need help with your social media by 11pm, EST.  Of all the comments at that point, I’ll pick five randomly and offer to help them.  One by one, we will make social media more fun, interesting, and relevant to the world.

*Note: If I think you’re being sketchy in anyway, I will not agree to help you out.  This is about helping people achieve their dreams using the internet, not exploiting their weaknesses so you can gain.