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Are You Sure You’re Not Annoying Your Facebook Fans?

How do you know if you’re becoming annoying to your fans? It’s a super scary thought! You’ve worked so incredibly hard to get them to your wall… The last thing you want to do is drive them away!

 

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this for the Go{4}Pro Facebook Page... Trying to give you the right amount of smiles, inspiration, tips… Sometimes I think I’m doing pretty good. Other times I’m worried that I’m painfully boring, repetitive, annoying (it changes). Finding the right balance takes time and insight.

There is no cookie cutter template on what to do and how to do it. Some people blow up their social media 24/7 – they go super personal, it seems like what they’re doing shouldn’t work, and yet for them it does! While others try to fit that same mold and fail miserably. The one thing that I know for sure with Social Media is that anyone who I’ve ever seen have long term success from it – has stayed genuine and true to who and what they are.

But for the sake of this posts, I think that these 5 annoyers are pretty universal and staying away from them is just good common practice… Of course there are always exceptions to the rule. Except for #2. Don’t make exceptions to that one, cause it’s annoying always! 

Here are 5 Big Annoyers you might want to avoid….  

Don’t criticize your competition or your peers. This really really frustrates me when I see photographers bad mouthing other photographers. We are not all going to agree, we are not all going to do things the same way and we are not all going to get it right all the time. Don’t self appoint as the Queen B who’s going to set other’s straight. I’ll admit it, you’ll probably get the short term gain of a lot of attention but ultimately all you’ll do is attract the type of people who love to criticize as well… And don’t be surprised if one day that criticism turns on you.

The “Hello” Spammy Tag. If you’ve ever made the mistake of writing something like “Saying Hello” and tagged a bunch of others pages. Chalk it up to a momentary lapse in judgment and vow you’ll never do it again. It’s not professional, it looks a little desperate and it can get you blocked or reported for spam. If you want to introduce yourself you should absolutely do it but be creative and be genuine. Tell them why you like being there and how grateful you are to have been introduced to their page. I can tell you that at least for me personally there is a much higher chance I’d check your page out if you’re creative and considerate than the 0% chance if you’re not.

 

Stop the Replay Button. I’m going to be the first to admit it, I dont’ know what the perfect amount of posts are and I’m not sure how you know when you’re posting too much but if you’re posting the same content every 30 minutes, I can guarantee you’re gonna get annoying. I’ve had days where I’ve felt like I was being insanely annoying. (Sorry if I annoyed you) I think at minimum you should post once a day, at maximum… I don’t know that answer. Pay attention to your feed. Is interaction drying up? Consider trying not to hit their feed more than once in a scan cycle.



The conversation that goes the wrong way. Have you ever had a client leave a post on your wall that they want to book a session? Hip, hip hurray for sure BUT don’t let this convo continue where it’s at. Instead you need to hop in the conversation car and drive it on over to a more suitable parking space (like your inbox). Respond to the comment with enthusiasm and let them know you’ll be emailing them asap. Two great things happen by doing this; 1) You educate other clients to keep scheduling where it belongs and 2) You don’t wind up in a huge awkward wall post where they ask if they can get a deal and now you’re stuck needing to respond with the knowledge your entire fan base is “listening”.

 

Overly TMI. Your fan base will come to learn what they should expect from you based on what you put out there. If you put a lot of personal stuff, you’ll attract fans who enjoy and appreciate it. If you never post little personal bits then randomly put one out there, your readers may be confused to see it. Finding your middle ground is the best answer! But the one rule you must obey… Be professional. That doesn’t mean be uptight. It doesn’t mean you lie, but you should always remember that your posts are representing your company. Once you’ve put it out on the web… it’s really tricky to take back!

Treat your fans like gold because really, they are. We should be grateful for the opportunity to interact and build a relationship with Facebook followers. I know it’s easy to click ‘like’ but I still consider it a huge honor when someone makes a CHOICE to like my page! One great way to show your gratitude is by interacting when a follower gives you the chance. If you put out a post, make sure you’re monitoring for responses. Ignoring  comments (intentional or not) will leave that follower and many others who are looking in, the impression that you’re not really in this for your clients. 

 

My last tip of advice is to STICK WITH IT! Don’t give up if you’re numbers aren’t climbing walls at the rate of certain Vampires at Twilight. And don’t be too hard on yourself if you’ve committed one of our “Annoyers”… Stick with it… Try different approaches and see what brings you the most interaction. Paying attention to what works for you and what doesn’t will be your best starting point. After that… You just have to experiment and see.What’s your best Facebook advice? Do you have any annoying rules you’d like to add? What has worked best for your own Fan Page and what mistakes have you learned never to make again?

What’s your best Facebook advice? Do you have any annoying rules you’d like to add? What has worked best for your own Fan Page and what mistakes have you learned never to make again?

Remember to please be kind to one another (there is always a REAL person on the other end of your words) but be specific so that we can all THRIVE a little better.

 

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  1. Melissa says:

    These are all great tips! Thank you for posting about it 😉

    I’d like to add one that is my #1 pet peeve: don’t ever, ever complain about a client, no matter how upset they made you feel. Social media is never the place to air out differences, and complaining about someone to the whole world is a form of bullying, rudeness, and it’s unprofessional. I’ve seen several people do this, and I cringe at the poor form of customer service. This is why I have such a love/hate relationship with social media – it’s just too easy to tell someone off without saying it to their face, but it’s a great tool for networking.

  2. Angela says:

    Great post! I find I have hidden posts from business’ that are health based and constantly post links to back up what they sell. I don’t mind one a day but when I have to scroll down to the bottom of my page to bypass them all its very annoying.

    • Really? Is it on your business page or on your wall feed? You can ban users from being able to post on your wall or at least delete the post. I just had one today – the post was fine but it said inactive user with no pic so just to be safe, I removed it. I also remove #2 ‘the spammy thing’ purely because I don’t want it to start an awful chain reaction where other people mistakenly thing “ooh good idea, I’ll try that too.”

      • Angela says:

        Its on my personal wall feed but is the persons business. So when they post these
        links to their wall it goes to everyone.They are a friend too but I no longer see any
        of their feeds. Hope that makes sense.

        • I’ll be honest – you totally lost me. So a friend is posting an update on their own status about health stuff that you’re just not interested in? …I know you can hide seeing updates from certain people (at least I think you can), maybe that’s your answer?

  3. Lyndsey says:

    Nail on the head! Finding a balance is hard but so important!

  4. Jessica says:

    Thank you so much for these tips! ^.^

    I just started my fb page and these tips might help since im a tad bit antsy. lol

  5. Jen says:

    Great post! Just started my fb account in March and trying to find the perfect balance of keeping my fans informed but not blasting them will too much info. Thanks for the tips!

    I also thought of one more that could get annoying…it’s the overuse of abbreviated words or phrases. I think if you’re running a business, keep it as professional as you can and try not to use the same language as you do when texting friends. Just my 2 cents 🙂

  6. Zach Prez says:

    I like your thumbs down image. I actually bought little ink stamps on Amazon that say Like and Don’t Like to stamp on things.

    But in all seriousness, my favorite of your tips is #4, have the conversation in the right spot. My blog post for next week will talk about how to get a lot of Q&A out of email and into Facebook. I don’t like answering the same question twice, and chances are that others will have the same question. So when people send me a private message or email with a question that others can benefit from, I tell them to post it to my wall where I can respond publicly.

    The easiest way to not be annoying is to provide value. So photographers – make sure what you post to Facebook is valuable to your audience (as opposed to just being valuable to yourself). If you’re only posting your latest projects you’re missing the mark. Post about interesting topics like wedding venues, wedding ideas, cool portrait locations, how to organize frames in your house, and non-photography stuff as well. The most comments I ever got was a post I made about a book I was reading. People want you to be a person, not a business.

    • Always love hearing you insights Zach… For those who are not familiar with Zach, he is the SEO guru for photographers check him out and at facebook.com/photomarketing

  7. Kate says:

    Love this post, Leah, and as always, great timing!

  8. Kate says:

    I’d live if you always posted your blog posts to your Facebook page. I love keeping up with your blog but sometimes miss out on posts. Great advice!

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