25 Facebook posts and Tweets we love to hate

thumbs-down 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.

Image via Wikimedia Commons with thanks.

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