5 Things to Avoid While Taking Advantage of Social Networking

By: Samantha Cummings

If you’re on the computer very often, you’ve almost certainly heard the terms ‘Web 2.0′ and ‘Social Networking.’ In fact, they are a very important part of doing business online in today’s world. However, it seems that many business people and website owners aren’t quite sure what they should be doing in the Web 2.0 world. Here are 5 things to avoid while taking advantage of social networking.

#5 - Do Not Neglect Your Social Networking ‘Friends’

These are the people you’ve added to your MySpace, Facebook, Digg or other social networking site. A lot of times, business or website owners will just add a ton of people in order to get their friend count up - and then ignore them. These are the people that will be voting for your site or blog. If they send a shout or recommend a page, take a serious look at it and let them know your thoughts.

This way, you can be sure that they will do the same when you send a page or a shout. Rather than adding a gazillion friends right off, look through the profiles and add friends who have similar interests as you. This will cut down on the chances of you getting pages or recommendations of things that you are not interested in at all.

#4 - Do Not Leave Generic Comments

When leaving comments on pages or blogs, read through the information and leave a comment that really adds to the conversation. If there’s one thing that irritates most social networkers, its comments like ‘nice post’ or ‘good job.’ What’s even worse is when you just get a little smiley face - J. Then you don’t know if they really even read the information.

Leave meaningful comments or comments that actually add some thought to the post. If you don’t have time, don’t leave a comment at all. Just return to the post later when you have a few minutes to actually comment in the correct way.

#3 - Don’t Get Too Personal

If you’re taking advantage of social networking sites in order to drive traffic to your business, you should maintain a professional image. Getting too personal is really not a good idea. I’ve read arguments, insults and some very colorful information while browsing through profiles and it’s not attractive. I kept thinking that I wouldn’t hire these businesses for anything - especially since they don’t know how to maintain professionalism in their own business.

If someone has written something that you don’t agree with, simply don’t comment. Or, comment in a professional way. Rather than telling the person how wrong and stupid they are, find something in their comments that you agree with. Then you can use a professional approach by telling them that you agree to an extent.

#2 - Never Post Something that Doesn’t Belong to You

People do it all the time - find an article that is well-written, remove the current links and add their own links back to their site. Never use someone else’s work at all without getting the proper permission. Not only does it make you look terrible in the online business world, but it is very illegal. Write your own content or hire a professional writer to do it for you.

#1 - No More Spam!

Do not spam your social networking friends over and over again or leave spammy comments all over the place. This is one way to become quite unpopular in the social networking world. If you do it enough, you can even get your profile locked. There are ‘report this user’ buttons all over the place and since spam is the most annoying thing in the world, people will most likely report you. Only send valuable links or pages to people and never the same one more than once.

By avoiding these things in your social networking ventures, you can have a better chance of succeeding and really becoming a valuable and respected social networker.