Social Media Pet Peeves: The Big One

Sure, I have my preferences when it comes to social media. But I don’t hold one social media tool above any of its peers. I think they all have their own niche and each help companies cast their messages in different ways. We all seem to learn the ropes of social media through the use of our personal Facebook pages and when some of us become responsible for a company’s social media presence, Facebook is relied on as the main building block. This approach leads to companies Tweeting from Facebook, my biggest social media pet peeve.

Linking a company’s Facebook Fan Page to company’s Twitter Page happens much more frequently than the opposite of that arrangement – or it seems that way to me. I’ve posted some examples of what a company’s Facebook status update looks like when it’s piped through their Twitter accounts.

(DISCLAIMER: Use of these examples does not indicate that I dislike the products or service provided by these fine companies. To be fair, I will include their commercials at the end of this post.)

Click "Like" if you have signed up for Jack's Red Dot Deal! If not no worries click the link below and sign up... http://t.co/3GNmsRQkCu
— Jack's (@eatatjacks) April 16, 2013

I posted a new photo to Facebook http://t.co/7YtgqqzXe9
— Jack's (@eatatjacks) April 20, 2013

http://t.co/AmC2AQKkjW
— Moe's Original BBQ (@MoesBBQBham) April 23, 2013

SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS METHOD? Nothing, technically. It gets the job done. But consider this:

• Clicking on these links when using a smartphone will display the photo or message through a separate viewing page powered by Facebook, adding precious seconds to the viewing experience. And we all know that a few seconds means a lot in this age of instant gratification.
• As seen in the middle example, this method portrays the action of an individual. This may or may not work for your company image.
• Relying on this method puts all of your eggs in the same Facebook basket, if you will. The good people at Jack’s understand the value of marketing, as clearly seen in their well-done campaign to celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2011. That’s why the corner-cutting done by Jack’s seems very odd to me.

WHAT WOULD I SUGGEST? Rather than sending your messages through one social media platform, I would suggest using a social media dashboard like Hootsuite to simultaneously post messages to all (or just a few) of your social media pages. There are many more features of Hootsuite that I enjoy for personal and business use – but I’ll save that post for later. Hootsuite is a great management tool and helps users overcome the issues that may come about from linking other social media accounts to Facebook.

Here are the videos I promised for these companies. I really do enjoy their food!

MOES ORIGINAL BBQ –

JACK’S –

Am I overreacting? Is this social media pet peeve too picky? Let me know in the comments and share your social media pet peeves too!