Jenise Fryatt Bio

Just like lakes and rivers can be polluted, so too can your social media stream.  Unwanted, meaningless tweets can clog it and create garbage that taints your online experience. 

But unlike water polluters, the garbage created by social media litter bugs doesn't fall far from the user ID, so to speak. Social media polluters are easily identified and swiftly blocked or unfollowed.

So for your own sake, as well as the sake of your followers and friends, make sure you aren't polluting your stream in the following ways.


List Names With No Explanation



If you've been on Twitter for a while, you've probably seen them: posts that simply list Twitter handles with very little or no explanation. You may have wondered what they were about because they were pretty meaningless to you.

This may be what killed Follow Friday on Twitter. People would post the #FF hashtag with back to back lists of Twitter handles. While in this case the #FF was meant to serve as the explanation (#FF for Follow Friday, i.e. please follow these people on Twitter), seeing your Twitter stream awash in such relatively useless tweets got very annoying - so much so that anti-Follow Friday blog posts started to pop up and many people abandoned the practice.

Why should anyone follow your list of people when you say nothing to recommend them?

The problem has gotten a lot better on Twitter, but a few stalwart listers remain.  Michele Price recently addressed the issue in her blog, Social Media for Smart People.


Back to Back Posts



It may be convenient for you to post things all at once, but it's irritating to many of your followers. Remember, the Twitter stream must be shared by many people. If you act like it's your solo performance, you will be unfollowed.

This doesn't mean that you should stay on Twitter all day posting sporadically. You can use tools like Buffer, HootSuite and TweetDeck to schedule your tweets.  I try not to schedule more than one post per hour.

 
Game Updates

OK, you just harvested a bumper crop in Farmville or you massacred your rival gang in Mafia Wars. Good for you! Now, please keep it to yourself.

Game updates have been a big reason some people avoid Facebook.  I mean, would you physically make announcements about your game achievements to your friends? Maybe if you were in 3rd grade, but this is not normal adult behavior.

If you enjoy a good game, that's great.  If you want to invite your friends to play, fine. After that, your games are your business.  Your followers will thank you for not sharing.



Non-Stop Self Promotion

"Buy my stuff!" "Our company won an award!" "Like us on Facebook!" Blah, blah, blah.

If you are posting nothing but this kind of content, you are the problem. Seriously.  People are learning to tune you out. Why should they listen?  You aren't interested in helping them. You are only interested in helping yourself.

Those who try to use social media for old-fashioned broadcast-style advertising are doomed to failure. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and all other online communities require an approach that builds relationships one by one.   The more impersonal and self-serving you appear to be, the more you will be ignored.

It's really pretty easy to avoid being a social media polluter. Follow the golden rule.  Don't post content that isn't of potential value to those who will receive it. Try to help others. Join in conversations. In short, Engage, Inform & Retweet (EIR) and you will build a strong supportive online community while keeping your social media stream crystal clear of pollution.