Are You Too Lazy for Social Media?
There’s a Real Problem
The trouble is, you and I both know that tomorrow never comes. Instead you’ll keep putting it off, because the most important things are easy to put off. Until one day they suddenly rear up and knock you to the ground. If we suddenly put two inches on around our waist after eating a cream cake, we’d never eat another one. Instead, the damage accumulates gradually, silently until one day we notice that going upstairs is harder than it used to be. Social media is like that; if you neglect it now, you will wake up one day and realise you’ve missed the biggest opportunity for business growth that you’re likely to see in decades. Think I’m exaggerating? Go ahead and ignore the opportunity. Take the lazy option. But, if you want to spot the signs and work out if you are too lazy for social media, read on.
Too Lazy for Follow Friday
Follow Friday is one of Twitter’s most generous features. It empowers anyone to recommend other people to follow. It’s also a great way to reward other twitter users for their generosity, engagement and general awesomeness. However, you are too lazy to spend the effort or time to send any out. Instead you reply to people with some variation of “Back at ya, bro!” when they give one to you. Keep that up and you won’t have to worry about even doing that, because people will stop recommending you.
Too Lazy to Retweet Properly
Twitter has over half a billion active users and one of most popular uses of Twitter is to share and re-share messages. We call this the retweet (or RT). If you want to improve your Twitter use, I recommend studying the most experienced and influential ones, such as @2morrowknight, @terrinakamura, and @Mayhemstudios. You’ll see that they have something in common: they use the ‘old style’ retweet (I prefer to call it the Pro style retweet these days). It’s not a coincidence. That’s why I say there are two ways to retweet: the lazy way and the right way. If you want to know how to retweet like a Pro, ask me how or book yourself onto one of my social media training workshops. 'There are two ways to retweet: the lazy way and the right way' Ash Mashhadi Click To Tweet
You Can’t Be Bothered to Thank People
Etiquette is everything when you’re online. Because we can’t see one another’s body language it’s harder to interpret the intent behind our words. That’s why what you say on your social media accounts is so important. When someone does something for you, your words have make it obvious how grateful you are. If you’re too lazy to thank people directly you may become one of those selfish jerks who just say something indirect like, “thanks for everything; you know who you are”. No they don’t, and if they do they now secretly hate you for being too lazy to say it properly. It’s even worse if you turn it into one of those fake hashtags that are meant to show that you’re ‘interesting’ like #youknowwhoyouare. Which just shows that you’re even too lazy to use your keyboard’s space bar.
Too Lazy to Check Your Links
Today I saw a really intriguing headline on Twitter that someone had shared called ‘Five New Ways Neuroscience is Improving Influence’. I thought it sounded like it could be a great read and I was due a coffee break, so I kept it on screen while I went to the make a fresh pot. I enjoyed the anticipation of learning something new that could also be useful in my work. Eventually I came back and settled down to read it, but when I clicked on the link the article didn’t appear on my screen. Instead I found myself glaring at a ‘Page Not Found’ screen. Now, I can’t say that this experience ruined my life; at worst, it was a minor irritation. Dear Reader, I recovered. However, it did tarnish my trust in the person that shared it just a little bit. We all make mistakes and I’m a forgiving type. But it happened again a few days later. From the same person. And then again a few weeks later. Now, that person is pigeonholed in my mind as just a little less reliable than everyone else. Do you want your potential clients to define you that way? The online economy is a trust-based system, those we trust most are the ones we will most likely buy from. It is really that simple.
Too Lazy to Punctuate
You write messages that have no punctuation at all so that all the words run into each other this is even worse when you ask rhetorical questions that you answer yourself why do you do that it’s really annoying and takes twice as long to read because we have to read it like eight times before we can work out what it is youre saying do we have time for that no way so just like stop ok right lol and while you are at it stop saying yolo thank you The world is divided into two kinds of people: the ones we value, and the lazy ones Click To Tweet
The Next Step
The world is divided into two kinds of people: the ones we value, and the lazy ones. This is as true in the world of social media as it is elsewhere. Whenever you use Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, or any other social networking platform you need to decide which kind of person you are. The ones we value make the effort to do it well by providing insight, sharing expertise, and taking the time to improve. The lazy ones buy followers, take without giving, and link all their accounts together so that their updates sound like press releases. I’m asking you to choose the harder road; let the lazy ones slouch off while you and I put the effort in to making our social media attract clients, develop communities, and provide leadership. Choose to be as remarkable in the virtual world as you are in the real one.