12 Most Solid Ways to Not Drive Your Facebook Friends and Fans Completely Nuts

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Content may be king, but this isn’t going to be a list of great topics to share with your social media friends and fans.

On your personal page, they may totally love pictures of your dinner, stories of the genius of your grandkids, and pictures of vacations you’ll never be able to afford. On your business page, they may enjoy reading lists of product specifications or your umpteenth post about how you’re the most successful realtor in Omaha.

We’re talking about practices (or lack thereof) that make everybody crazy all the time, and what to do about them. Here we go…

1. Get your own account

They’re free, so there’s absolutely no need for you and your significant other to share one. When you do, your readers don’t know who is talking. (This also applies to email accounts.)

2. Say things that make sense

When you post stuff like, “Nice one!” or “I’m so mad!” with no explanation, nobody knows what the hell you’re talking about.

3. Understand how a newsfeed works

If you post something, then give an update about it hours or days later, the reader is not looking at both posts together. The two posts are separated by dozens and dozens of other things people have posted, if they’ve seen the first one at all.

4. Remember that Facebook limits the number of people who see ANY post

This applies to both personal and business page posts. So the reader may have never seen the first one.

5. If you reference a website, give the link

And when someone asks for it, don’t tell them to Google it. That’s lazy, rude, and counter-productive. If you make somebody retype the URL (or guess at it) in their browser, they are probably not going to do it.

6. When you post a link, don’t leave the 400-character URL

It just clutters up the post and takes up unnecessary space in the reader’s newsfeed. After the preview comes up, erase the link before hitting “Post.” If you want the link visible, shorten it — some URL shorteners are better for Google than others. We use Bitly.

7. If you’re windy, get a blog

Facebook apparently now allows status updates to be of infinite length. Nobody wants to read a novella. Start a blog and let people sign up. Oh, and don’t publish actual novels one paragraph at a time.

8. Recognize a hoax

If something sounds too good to be true, it is. At least run it through Snopes.com before passing it on to gullible folks. Some of it is spam and has nasty side-effects.

9. Know that you can’t put Facebook “on notice”

It’s their platform and you can bet they’ve run their terms of service past a lawyer or two. It’s Zuckerberg’s world, we just live in it.

10. Please don’t overshare

We’re not interested in the tacky behavior of your screwed-up family, gripes against your boss, medical procedures, or pretty much anything that happens below the waist.

11. Save the gore

Posting pictures of maimed children and tortured animals makes people look away; it doesn’t necessarily draw them to your cause or make them stick around long enough to find a donate button.

12. Don’t ask people to “make something their status for an hour”

When you post a status update, it’s your status until a) you delete it or b) you post a new status. These posts generally come with “or else” wording, such as “Post this as your status for an hour or you don’t hate that people get cancer.” Reposting won’t keep people from getting cancer.

What practices do you see on Facebook that make you nuts?

Featured image courtesy of Werwin15 licensed via Creative Commons.