4 Things You Shouldn"t Be Doing on Facebook
Ok.
I admit it.
I am writing this post because I have something I want to whinge about.
I woke up the other day, made my coffee and sat down to open my emails when it hit me...
an inbox full of messages from Facebook telling me that some enthusiastic internet marketers had added me to their groups and as a result, my inbox was full of spam before I'd even had a chance to check out what the group was about.
Actually, they were groups I maybe would have joined if given the option, but as soon as I saw that they had added me without asking, I was furious and left a nasty note on their wall! This is poor marketing and screams of desperation, especially when you go back to your wall a day after adding those new people and you find that have left nasty messages on your wall because you were presumptuous enough to assume people wanted to join a group they probably didn't know anything about.
So that brings me to the first of the Facebook sins and that is: 1) DON'T ADD PEOPLE TO YOUR GROUPS WITHOUT ASKING THEM Groups are a great way for like-minded people to share ideas and even links to great content but joining should be optional so that people's inboxes don't get clogged full of spam.
Now while we're on the subject of groups, here's another tip that I learned quite recently: 2) DON'T SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ON Facebook GROUPS This is one sin that I know I have been guilty of in the past but I really advise not spending too much times posting links onto Facebook group pages.
Not only is it spammy and and lowers your credibility, the backlinks you get from it aren't really worth the time.
While it is true that Google loves Facebook, it doesn't love group wall posts all that much.
If you want to get some extra link juice from the social media giant, try using notes instead.
So the note thing goes something like this: You write a blog post as normal, you go to your Facebook profile and find the notes.
(You'll have to go to the home page and the 'notes' tab will be down the side), open a new note, copy and paste your blog post and add a link down the bottom of it which directs people back to your site.
This link is worth 50 group page links.
Why? because Google prefers links which are surrounded by text.
It sees them as more authoritative and understandably so.
If you have selected some groups, you want to post to on a regular basis, don't spend a lot of time manually posting on each one, try a tool like 'Plum Social' and it can post to Facebook groups automatically, leaving you time to spend on more worthwhile activities.
3) DON'T TAG PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW Aaargh.
This happened to me only today.
Did you know that when you tag somebody on a piece of content or a video, you are posting to their wall without permission.
And the most likely scenario is that you are doing it to people who you have 'friended' just so you have more people to annoy.
Imagine somebody standing in front of your driveway holding up a sign with a message you don't know or care anything about.
It's my wall..
...
geddoff.
4) DON'T SPEND MORE THAN 15 MINUTES A DAY ON IT I was checking out a friend's profile the other day and the timeline cover said something like 'Facebook - Wasting people's Lives Since 2004′.
Now if you have anything to do with internet marketing, you'll know that this doubly applies to you and probably because you have been indulging in the above 4 activities.
Now I have heard some of the top online marketing gurus like Rachael McGregor and Amy Porterfield say that they only spend around 15 minutes a day on it and yet it is one of the best sources of leads for their business.
So my advice? Don't spend too much time on the above 3 activities.
Focus instead on creating quality content and posting it on your own wall or group wall, connecting with relevant people and engaging your friends and fans so that they will want to follow you.
Only then will Facebook become the friend you need it to be.
If you want to know more about how small businesses can use the internet to market themselves more effectively, then see below.
I admit it.
I am writing this post because I have something I want to whinge about.
I woke up the other day, made my coffee and sat down to open my emails when it hit me...
an inbox full of messages from Facebook telling me that some enthusiastic internet marketers had added me to their groups and as a result, my inbox was full of spam before I'd even had a chance to check out what the group was about.
Actually, they were groups I maybe would have joined if given the option, but as soon as I saw that they had added me without asking, I was furious and left a nasty note on their wall! This is poor marketing and screams of desperation, especially when you go back to your wall a day after adding those new people and you find that have left nasty messages on your wall because you were presumptuous enough to assume people wanted to join a group they probably didn't know anything about.
So that brings me to the first of the Facebook sins and that is: 1) DON'T ADD PEOPLE TO YOUR GROUPS WITHOUT ASKING THEM Groups are a great way for like-minded people to share ideas and even links to great content but joining should be optional so that people's inboxes don't get clogged full of spam.
Now while we're on the subject of groups, here's another tip that I learned quite recently: 2) DON'T SPEND TOO MUCH TIME ON Facebook GROUPS This is one sin that I know I have been guilty of in the past but I really advise not spending too much times posting links onto Facebook group pages.
Not only is it spammy and and lowers your credibility, the backlinks you get from it aren't really worth the time.
While it is true that Google loves Facebook, it doesn't love group wall posts all that much.
If you want to get some extra link juice from the social media giant, try using notes instead.
So the note thing goes something like this: You write a blog post as normal, you go to your Facebook profile and find the notes.
(You'll have to go to the home page and the 'notes' tab will be down the side), open a new note, copy and paste your blog post and add a link down the bottom of it which directs people back to your site.
This link is worth 50 group page links.
Why? because Google prefers links which are surrounded by text.
It sees them as more authoritative and understandably so.
If you have selected some groups, you want to post to on a regular basis, don't spend a lot of time manually posting on each one, try a tool like 'Plum Social' and it can post to Facebook groups automatically, leaving you time to spend on more worthwhile activities.
3) DON'T TAG PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW Aaargh.
This happened to me only today.
Did you know that when you tag somebody on a piece of content or a video, you are posting to their wall without permission.
And the most likely scenario is that you are doing it to people who you have 'friended' just so you have more people to annoy.
Imagine somebody standing in front of your driveway holding up a sign with a message you don't know or care anything about.
It's my wall..
...
geddoff.
4) DON'T SPEND MORE THAN 15 MINUTES A DAY ON IT I was checking out a friend's profile the other day and the timeline cover said something like 'Facebook - Wasting people's Lives Since 2004′.
Now if you have anything to do with internet marketing, you'll know that this doubly applies to you and probably because you have been indulging in the above 4 activities.
Now I have heard some of the top online marketing gurus like Rachael McGregor and Amy Porterfield say that they only spend around 15 minutes a day on it and yet it is one of the best sources of leads for their business.
So my advice? Don't spend too much time on the above 3 activities.
Focus instead on creating quality content and posting it on your own wall or group wall, connecting with relevant people and engaging your friends and fans so that they will want to follow you.
Only then will Facebook become the friend you need it to be.
If you want to know more about how small businesses can use the internet to market themselves more effectively, then see below.