Why is it that we don’t seem to be that content with the relationships we’re establishing online?
We sign up and create our profile, develop and nurture our network, and then join the next social media site to hit the web, only to spread the same communication and content across multiple platforms. From Foursquare to Twitter, Twitter to LinkedIn, Facebook to Google+, Instragram to Facebook, and now Pinterest to you name it, we aren’t satisfied enough with sharing on these individual networks that we feel the need to quickly cross-post to another. I’ve written about this phenomenon I labeled Megaphoneitis before, where we grab a megaphone in the hopes of amplifying our words for all to hear. Now’s the time to put down the megaphone and trust your respective networks are listening to you loud and clear.
Pinterest is currently all the rage with its simplicity and visually appealing online pin boards. We find people who share the things we enjoy, and we follow them. Likewise, people discover what we pin and decide to follow us. No matter what you’re looking for, you can find it on Pinterest. I’m a foodie so new and exciting recipes intrigue me.
Over time, we’re able to amass quite a following due to others sharing and liking our pins. Pinterest is currently applauded for being the fastest growing social network ever. Consider in May of 2011, Pinterest had 418,000 U.S. unique visitors. Eight months later, in December of 2011, Pinterest had 7.5 million U.S. unique visitors, according to comScore Inc. , an internet research group. It’s not uncommon to have hundreds of people following the various boards we create which sounds great, only we’re not content with those numbers, so we grab our megaphone and cross-post each pin to our Twitter and Facebook network. Why?
Just because you can get away with murder doesn’t mean you should, and the same holds true for intertwining all your social networks. Years ago when LinkedIn was established, professionals were excited to have a platform where they could demonstrate their expertise and connect with others who provided value. Today, you look at your LinkedIn feed with dismay because you not only see professional updates, you see updates like this:
Really? I signed up for LinkedIn to get your college basketball updates, with a hashtag to boot? I don’t think so, and I’m guessing you didn’t create your account to be inundated with this type of nonsense either. We know this is not a good idea yet we can’t help ourselves. We see the megaphone sitting there right next to us and the urge to pick it up and use it is beyond enticing. We’re important and people need to hear us, dammit.
Don’t get me wrong; I understand the purpose and desire to share across multiple platforms and on occasion, that makes complete sense. Problem is, too many people aren’t strategic about when to cross the lines from one network to the next and instead, blast out their updates automatically. The majority of your Facebook network doesn’t want to see ALL your latest Pins or they would be following you on Pinterest. Your LinkedIn network doesn’t care about the conversations you’re having on Twitter with hashtags and unprofessional lingo. Sending your Foursquare updates to both Twitter AND Facebook seems like overkill, it’s already going to your Foursquare network. When is enough, enough?
Instead of always looking to shout from the mountaintop for everyone to hear, be comfortable in the relationships you’ve developed on each platform and stop looking through them to see the person behind ‘em. Much like it’s rude to stare at your mobile device on a dinner date (we’ve all seen the commercial), trust that the conversation happening right in front of you is better than the conversation one table over. If the content you’re creating is that wonderful, others will share it for you.
I couldn’t agree more! My biggest social media-related pet peeve is blasting tweets to LinkedIn — and that’s what 75% of my network does. Like you said, hashtags have no place outside of Twitter (unless you’re using them for fun every once in awhile elsewhere), and it has negatively impacted my experience on LinkedIn as a result. Sharing on multiple sites is fine, but take the extra five seconds to craft the message for that audience.
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Thanks for your thoughtful comments Erica. The problem as I see it is people link accounts and then don’t go back and analyze why they decided to do it. It’s just easier for them to forget about it and move on.
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Thank you for posting this. I share very similar thoughts and have never, ever been a fan of cross-posting, … unless like Erica wrote: the message is crafted for that particular network or audience.
I’ll admit, I have posted to Twitter from LinkedIn, but only when I felt the message was appropriate and “needed”. I do enjoy that we have the ability to cross-post, but firmly believe it should never be automated or unattended.
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Well said Dave.
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I agree with Dave P. Cross-posting itself is not always a bad thing – but automated cross-posting IS always a bad thing. Quite often, I find information, articles or other material that I want to share with my Twitter followers and my FB friends. When in the proper context, it can be quite useful!
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I agree Brad, as mentioned in the blog there is a time for cross-posting, we all do it. Thanks for your feedback.
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Dave, nice writing. I agree and disagree with your points. Social is all about referral traffic. If I really want something read, I share it across multiple networks. I’m not an autoupdater, but I do often share across multiple networks. I also often only share intra-network. I think if people learn to show some discretion and utilize the networks for their strengths only (your LinkedIn example) then we would all be happier.
I lob this question back at you. How does it lessen your experience to see the occasional misplaced comment? I can see that on LinkedIn it could be annoying, but a Pin shared on Twitter or Facebook seems harmless enough. A check-in from Google+ shared on Twitter is no biggie. What’s the rub?
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Therran,
I’m always leery of writing blogs like this because I don’t think people understand my overall point. I mentioned in the blog that sharing across multiple platforms is fine if it’s strategic and the occasional cross over from one platform to the next is fine. There’s nothing wrong with sending a Pin to Twitter or Facebook, I’m talking about those that send them all. What if everyone sent everything to every platform? That’s the concern I have. Where do we draw the line? My overall point is that we should start feeling more comfortable with the networks we’re creating on each platform and pick and choose when to share across the various platforms. In the end, people have to choose what they think is best for them however they run the risk of having everything hidden or ignored because their network gets tired of seeing all their posts on every platform.
I hope this better clarifies my point.
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and enjoy the conversation.
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I hear you, Dave, and I understand your point. I’m just challenging the inherent issue with a person cross-sharing every piece of content and how that negatively affects me. If it gets annoying stop following that person. However, I think most people find like-minded individuals on every platform. I like sports and cars so I end up finding people that like sports and cars on every platform I’m on. When I share something in those realms, which is often, it’s going out to every platform I’m on. I guess I could care less about the slippery slope of how much is too much because I don’t see a line needing to be defined. LinkedIn is a bit different, because it is for professionals. If people are inappropriate on that platform, I immediately take that person out of my stream and consideration set for recommendation because they have no cooth. The rest of it doesn’t get to me, though. So, we just have a slightly different opinion and that’s cool.
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