How not to promote yourself on Facebook

I planned to blog on something else tonight, but saw something that made me want to change course.

Tonight, I provide a lesson to those in need, or a public service announcement as you will. I certainly understand the benefits of promoting your business, book, product, etc. through all social media. It's a necessity these days. It's something I have done as well for clients I have worked with, and will likely again in the future.

However, there are ways to do this. And ways not to do this. Let me give you a few examples. These are actual occurrences, not random examples drawn out of the air.


1. Do not use someone else's birthday as a way to promote your product. If 150 people have wished a person happy birthday on a person's Facebook wall, you do not have to distinguish yourself by saying something such as:

"Happy Birthday Audra! Thank you for all that you have done to promote my book, Earl the Squirrel Found a Walnut. www.earlswalnut.com." (And then a photo of the book and a link to the website.)
While to many these may sound genius on a high traffic wall that day, it makes it more about you than about the person who's special day it is.

2. If someone has a special request or sends a special message to a group of people for a specific purpose, don't use it as an opportunity to plug your product.
"Do stay in touch Audra! Thank you for all you did promoting, Earl the Squirrel Found a Walnut. www.earlswalnut.com." (And then a photo of the book and a link to the website.)
I'm on to you!

3. Create three (or more) pages in addition to your personal Facebook page that you subscribe to and ask all your friends to follow each one. And then once the same group of people follow every page, make a blog post that feeds via Networked blogs to every page so that you get at least 5 feeds in a row on the exact same thing. (Oh, and make sure you aren't like a ping pong ball feeding back and forth Facebook to Twitter and back again.)
While guilty of two blog feeds myself if I were posting the same thing on my personal blog and the one I did for my former employer, it was 2 rather than 5 and at times they were spaced out better than others.
A) Variety is the spice of life. Introduce the different groups to different pages in different ways. One way may interest us more than others.
B) Don't be so lazy. Work your feeds at different times of the day so that people that may not see it at 8:30 AM (and missed your five feeds) can see another one at 11 AM. 

4. It's perfectly great to use the various online tools that update Twitter, Facebook, etc. at the same time. However, there are times to use one over the other. For example, I post more on Facebook than I do Twitter. If I'm replying to a Tweet, I only use Twitter. Or if there's a TV show on that says to go to Twitter, I do it that way and use the @ and #.
However, do not use your Twitter to feed everything on your Facebook page. Especially, if you use a lot of @ and #. Add in that you RT a lot of people. And you use Twitter instead of text messaging which is not good when you are replying and Re-Tweeting so much that your readers feel like they are tapping into a personal conversation. 
For example: @joedaddy: RT @angjamama I was hungry too. RT @joedaddy Why did you go #Walmart to get some #waffles instead of coming to my book signing @Borders?  #NeverRains bit.ly/40834278
This does not need to show up on your Facebook page where you are trying to promote yourself and get a following. I think my example makes more sense than some of the Tweets I've seen some people make. 

What are some of the things that people do on Facebook or Twitter to promote their business, product, etc. that turn you off rather than turn you on to what they are trying to sell?
 
 
 
 

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