twitter – Page 41 – Andrew Careaga

Sometimes you gotta break the rules

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As a serial contributor to the decline of social media — i.e., the disturbing trend of pushing RSS feeds of news releases to our university’s Twitter and Facebook sites — I was happy to read some positive reinforcement that, sometimes, it’s OK to post press releases to Facebook groups.

That’s the first of three social media “rules” addressed in this post by Bryan Howland, “Three Social Media Rules We’ve (Intentionally) Broken.” (Thanks to Malli Gero for posting the link on the PRWise LinkedIn group.)

The bottom line for a business [or university-ed.] engaging in social media is to give their audience/customers/fans, etc. what they want. It is far better to have happy customers than it is to worry about what the social media “purists” think about your efforts.

Here, here.

As for posting press releases in social media space, Howland points out that you can use press releases to create an interactive experience with Facebook fans or Twitter followers. “Sometimes,” he writes, “your fans want to read your press releases. … [D]on’t take advantage of your fans, or confuse promoting your business with engaging with them, but don’t be afraid to give ‘em what they want either.”

Our automated Twitter feed to Facebook pushes news releases and blog posts to our fan page. Sometimes, people even interact with those posts.

Then again, we try to mix things up a bit on both Twitter and Facebook. We manually post tweets and status updates from real live people typing on real keyboards, just like I’m doing right now. (Or so you assume.) As Rachel Reuben pointed out in a recent .eduguru post, “Something as simple as a [Facebook] status update that ties to an emotional time in new, current, and former students lives seems to resonate.”

So, what social media “rules” are you breaking?

Friday Five: pay it forward edition

Happy Friday! Why not take some time today to pay it forward in your social mediasphere? Here are five ways you can do that:

Comment on a blog. Spend a few minutes surfing some of your favorite blogs (or better than that, read some not-so-familiar blogs) and then post a comment on a post that especially resonates with you. Since the idea here is to pay it forward, the comment should be positive or constructive, but sincere. And make it meaningful — something more than, “Great post, Johnny!” (Note: I’m not purposely trolling for comments here.)
Retweet — sincerely. On Twitter, the practice of retweeting has become a big part of the experience and has become the Twitter version of paying it forward. People retweet articles and blog posts they like, so that other members of their networks can get in on the action. But as often as many people retweet (RT) posts, I get the feeling some folks aren’t really reading the contents; they’re just forwarding the links the way your Aunt Gracie forwards emails about Microsoft money giveaways or Neiman-Marcus cookie recipes. So, don’t be one of those people. Don’t gratuitously retweet. But do retweet those posts or articles you find worthy of the act.
Give a Facebook friend the thumbs up. Use Facebook’s “like” application to let some of your Facebook connections know you like or appreciate their status post.
Give props. If you’re on the popular music site blip.fm and hear a song you like, give that DJ props. Better yet, reblip the tune. (Reblipping is the musical version of retweeting.)
Send an email. Remember email? OK, technically it doesn’t fall under the social networking rubric. But still, it’s a good way to connect with some folks. How about dropping a line to someone today to congratulate that person on a job well done, or even just let that person know he or she is in your thoughts?