5 Things You Shouldn’t Do When Using Any Social Site
Everything you take in life, there are certain things you should and shouldn’t do. When we are trying something new, we don’t clearly know what shouldn’t be done. Sometimes few things will cause a worse effect. Over doing anything is not good. It is no exception when it comes to social media.
You join new social sites now and then. At times, you use it to your advantage and you also get banned sometimes. For people trying any new social site, this list might be useful. The list below tells you the things you shouldn’t do when using any social site. It is not limited to any single social site. Whatever social site you take, these are some general rules which you should follow.
1. Don’t Over Promote Your Blog
You take any social site, you are not allowed to over promote your blog. Sometimes, you might get yourself or your blog banned from it. Especially with sites like digg, when you over promote, you are sure to get your blog banned. In social site, you should promote other sites more often. Other people will find your blog and promote it.
2. Don’t Add Too Many People
This won’t bring you any bad most of the times, but it not good to add people randomly or those whom you don’t know much. There are options like “Report this user” which will let you into trouble.
3. Don’t Send Too Many Shout Outs
In almost every site, there is an option to ask for a vote. In stumbleupon, you have this option called “send to”. Though these are designed for letting others know what you have found, you should not do this too much. This will again make the other end user to report you.
4. Don’t Send Private Messages Unless It Is Important
This is one another feature in social sites using which you can send messages to other users. This is a very good feature and if you can use it properly, you will be able to achieve few things. But if you don’t know how to use it, read this blog post where I talk about it.
5. Don’t Vote For Every Site You Visit
When you join new social sites, you will be tempted to increase the number of votes you have made and you will be on a voting spree. Avoid doing this as it might be seen as spamming the system. You should vote for sites that are really good and to those that truly deserve a vote.
I’m sure you a few people would have done some of these at some point. In fact, I’m guilty of the fifth one. I did that when I started with social sites one year back. I haven’t completed the post and there are still a couple of things which one must not do. But I will let you to say it in the comments. Also please share your views in the comments.
Adam | July 26th, 2008 at 11:01 am #
Thank you.
I find shouts so incredibly annoying from digg. I get 30-50 a day minimum and its so frustrating, I don’t even look at most of them.
Social Media is good for something things but it falls short in a number of things.
Retro Garden | July 26th, 2008 at 11:17 am #
AMEN!
I have participated in a popular bloggers “Digg/Stumbleupon/Twitter/Plurk” exchange, and have spent today deleting people who have added me.
Far too many people send far too many shouts. 4 in a day, and you are reported. My limit.
Good Post
Christopher Clayton | July 26th, 2008 at 11:46 am #
with #2, you should change it too ‘unwilling peaple’ its ok to add them if they have asked to be on an adding list like problogger.net has recently done.
Christopher Clayton | July 26th, 2008 at 11:56 am #
You should add an edit posts plugin.
=]
@retro: i always delete peaple if they send me 2 shouts a week asking me too digg somthing!
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach | July 26th, 2008 at 12:27 pm #
Good ideas and tips! My favorite social sites are twitter and stumbleupon - they take up most of my networking.
I like reporting the unusual and unique - Stumbleupon is great for that!
Barbara
Niche P | July 26th, 2008 at 9:21 pm #
Nice post. I’ve noticed that as Digg becomes ever more popular, it is also becoming somewhat of a menace with all the shouts. Very annoying.
Jessi | July 27th, 2008 at 3:16 pm #
Those are some great tips and all too often, people break most of them all at once!
Pika | July 27th, 2008 at 6:14 pm #
Guilty of all of these things! As a result, a popular social networking site has banned me — TWICE. Bad for me. So DONT do them
rob | July 27th, 2008 at 6:29 pm #
good tips, i’ve found it best to work hard to earn comments and to praise other bloggers/sites when it’s deserved so you don’t “water down” your votes