25 Facebook posts and Tweets we love to hate
Kirstie Lundgaard (@KirstieLund) and I had a rant on Twitter about Facebook and Twitter abuse yesterday.
Facebook and Twitter is social, it’s a conversation but yet much of our behaviour on the networks is anti-social.
There are two principles that will always keep you on the straight and narrow: create and share good content; and don’t be an idiot.
Several people jumped into the conversation.
We’ve compiled a summary of the worst abuses below and yes we could have focused on the positive but that wouldn’t have been as cathartic or nearly so much fun.
#1 Self-promotion
RTs of your own content (guilty as charged).
#2 Bad behaviour
Divas, egotists, gurus, meanies, moaners and screamers.
#3 Bombing runs
Repeatedly tweeting out the same link or hashtag to multiple people to get attention.
#4 Humble brags
Any contrived mention of your car, commute, home, travel or work. We don’t care.
#5 Faux wisdom
Random out of context quotes. “Adversity is just another word for opportunity.” No it isn’t.
#6 Hashtag abuse
Over use of hashtags, inappropriate hashtags and hashtag spam #for #no #sensible #reason #at #all.
#7 Clients and employers
Disclosure please. Simple.
#8 Content curators
Facebook and Twitter feeds that look like an RSS feed of content from other sources.
#9 Passive aggressive posts
“I no longer have the patience with some people,” and similar posts. We haven’t got a clue what you’re on about. If you need help please ask. Mainly a Facebook thing.
#10 Flawed #FF
#FollowFriday, or #FF for short, has been abused by spam. If someone is worthy tell us why, and one person at a time.
#11 Follower chasing
I've only 984,970 followers or likes to go to get to a 1,000,000. Please follow, like, RT.
#12 Needy posts
Please RT my message, image, or video. Mainly a brand thing but often used by teachers demonstrating how a message travels in a social network. Embarrassing when it fails.
#13 Favourite stalkers
Followers that repeatedly favourite content on Twitter but never engage. Not to be confused with people that use favourite as a way of building a list of people or collating content.
#14 DM stalkers
Creepier than Favourite stalkers these frequently sleazy Twitter users communicate solely by DM. Often a boy thing.
#15 Internet of things
Data from devices, often wearables. It’s great you’ve been out for a run (although you could probably go a bit faster). We've been eating cake and don't care. Jog on.
#16 App automation
My best RTs this week came from you and other tweets. Thanks for followings DMs. Auto content curation. It ain’t social.
#17 Daftness
Lots of this mainly on Facebook. If you don't share this you will die alone in the most awful way imaginable. Share if you're not a racist, sexist, homophobe. I need 10,000 likes to get my kid an operation.
#18 Desperate measures
PLEASE FOLLOW ME OR LIKE MY PAGE.
#19 Food tweets
We all have to eat. Please use Instagram.
#20 Over the top
Your tweet was so awesome. No it wasn't really.
Thanks for adding me to your fantastic list. Its just a list.
#21 RT fail
People that mean to RT or MT but use quotes because they're using a lousy app.
#22 Theft
Nicking ideas or content and re-purposing it as their own. It's not cool.
#23 Tweetlonger
Tweetlonger and its ilk. Twitter is 140 characters. That’s it.
#24 Links behind a paywall
Facebook groups from Twitter, Financial Times, The Times etc. We can’t see them.
#25 Klout bragging
Touting Klout scores as a metric of personal influence. Everyone is influential in their own networks. We wouldn't be following you otherwise.
Thanks to @adparker, @danslee, @EEPaul, @forgepr, @hallmeister, @kchadda, @Raphaelite_Girl, @saturngirl, @Shedworking, @ThePaulSutton and @tonyveitchuk, for joining in the chat and offering many of the contributions above.
