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6 Undeniable Reasons People Hate Social Media

Monday 22 September 2014

8 minute read

By Sarah Burns

It’s the technology that has changed the way we communicate and affected various elements of our day-to-day lives, but there are some undeniable and valid reasons that people HATE social media…

Understandably, not everyone will agree with these points (we can’t please everyone) however, some of the points should ring true with many.  

Here are our 6 Undeniable Reasons People Hate Social Media (a mixture of professional and personal qualms)...

Oversharing

Sometimes our friends, colleagues, employees, family members go a little too far with "TMI" (too much information), which is most people's pet hate. Facebook is a place for oversharing and nosing at old school friend's drastic personal lives. What we don't want to do as companies is overshare our brand, as in, tire it out.

Don't exhaust your feed with sales messages and try to balance your content - if it's not getting interacted with, it's either not good enough, interesting or there is too much of it being circulated. 

Selfies

We're SICK of seeing those questionable photos in our Facebook feeds. A personal problem, yes, not a company one, but who needs to pose into their camera lens with a strange-looking pout going on? 

From a professional stand point, it's important that you take care to check that the multimedia you put out there is both relevant, professional and unlikely to cause any issues with discrimination, competitors and customers alike.

Scheduled messages

As a company who handles social media for a lot of clients, we know the advantages of scheduling messages - it's not possible to be at a computer 24/7, HOWEVER... Only ever schedule "safe content", materials that aren't time-reliant or dangerous if they cannot be taken down immediately for whatever reason.

It's also important to use the time at your desk to put some relevant content out there in the mix. Don't just schedule everything, but actively seek to engage with your audience - ask about a non-controversial news story or what they're doing with their day! Simple!

Ignorance

A pet hate in everyday, offline life, is ignorance. We hate to feel like our opinion or presence isn't valued - everyone feels that way. However, when a company has a social media presence which they fail to use and embrace to communicate effectively with their customers, that is also a pet peeve.

If you have a social media team or external agency in place, ensure you understand who is going to reply to customer queries and what to do if the person answering these messages doesn't know the right answer. Everyone on the social / content team should also understand the procedures for replying - your company voice - and rules about sharing contact details. 

Obviously you shouldn't expect employees to deal with social media while they're off, but come up with rules to ensure nothing goes unanswered for too long. 

Requesting followers and likes

If you're a loner in life, you might want more friends, but you certainly wouldn't feel it necessary to go online and ASK for friends.

Why do businesses think it's a-okay to ask for followers and likes? Or force the situation with a "follow back please?"-style message?

You should only want people who have a genuine interest in your brand and what you do - they're going to be the only genuine leads and potential future customers.

If you're struggling to get followers, maybe you aren't on the right platform or writing relevant, non-interruptive content. It's all about balance.

Finding it had to get likes? Maybe your content isn't (dare we say it} likeable! 

Interested in personal gains only

As with all things social media, we're often being pretty vain when we put ourselves out there, with pictures and opinions (the cheek of it!).

However, a company should respect that their X amount of followers also care about themselves. Consider joining in with Twitter hours to embrace local companies and their messages (you may find great associates AND customers). 

Consider how you appear to customers, if they go down your Facebook and Twitter feeds only to find self-promoting messages. It pays to give others a little attention!

Make your company's social media marketing something to be proud of and actively engaged with, by reading our blogs and using Thrive's growing resource of ebooks and checklists.

If you're looking to embark on a website build project, whether it's completely from scratch or a site refresh, our ebook will give you the knowledge to make your project as stress-free as possible.

The Website Design Handbook for Businesses

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