I can’t do it any longer.  I can’t sit back and cringe and bite my tongue for even one more minute.  You’ve heard, “When people know better, they DO better.”  The sad part is that many of you have had people tell you to use these less than helpful methods of getting better exposure on social media.

I'm here to boldly tell you: There are legit CRAPTASTIC, SMARMY methods of getting engagement!

So, after this, no more excuses. You all should KNOW better!

IF you have that friend who is funneling the company Kool-Aid right now you might share this post to your wall in hopes that she sees it.  Many new business owners are simply punch drunk on what I call Desperation Kool-Aid. It comes from an overriding passion and enthusiasm for their business. It clouds all good, sane marketing principles and comes across as desperate to outsiders.

Or, if you are a REALLY good friend you’ll just private message her this url.  (If you are reading this because someone sent you the link consider yourself lucky to have a friend who cares so much about you and your business!)

 Social Media Advice to Ignore:

1. Use your personal page for business.

Please hear me when I say that your friends and family are NOT as excited as you are about your business.  Seriously, they aren’t.  They won’t TELL you that, they just quietly hide your posts so they don’t have to see you trying to sell them your wares on a daily or weekly basis. If they ARE interested in your business they will happily follow you on your business page or join your private group (on their own accord).

2. Post the same thing on multiple social media platforms.

I get it, you have these audiences and this important stuff you want to tell them. And HELLO, you don’t have all day to be spending on social media so posting the same thing in multiple places is just the smart way to save time. What you are ACTUALLY doing is giving your followers a REASON to only follow you in one place, thus cutting your chances of them seeing your stuff in HALF!

What?  Kelly, you are bad at math!  This actually more than doubles my chances!

Nope and nope. This encourages people to STOP following and choose only one of those. Girl, I don’t want to see your stuff twice and I CERTAINLY don’t want it taking up my feed in more than one place.

CLICK!  That is the sound of people unfollowing the fan page, turning off the group notifications, and hiding your personal posts if you post there about business.

3. Add new people as friends on FB and then message them with a pitch to do business with you.

Someone has told you that ‘friending’ new people daily is an excellent way of getting business.  It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Request to friend people who are in the same groups as you, people who are friends of your recent hostess... well, really anyone. Just friend away! When/if that person accepts your friend request message them with an offer, the link to your website or an invite to your FB party. Watch the $$ and new team members roll in!  WOW, this is soooo easy!

Now that most of us have been around on Facebook for more than 5 minutes we see this practice for what it is worth - or what it is NOT worth. It’s not worth my time or my internet safety to accept friend requests from total strangers. That’s what your FAN PAGE is for! Let me get to know you over there and if I find that you are my long lost best friend soul mate then YES, by all means, let’s be friends!

4. Participate in “Like Ladders”.

I am going to try my hardest not to be all SHOUTY and urgent with this one, but it is seriously one of the absolute worst things you can do for your business.  You think that more fans = more exposure = more business.  You couldn’t be any more wrong.

What happens with a like ladder is this:

Someone posts this brilliant idea of everyone posting their business page url and the suggestion that everyone goes and LIKES everyone else’s page!  Isn’t this going to be amazing!?  We are each going to get zillions of followers and most likely lots and lots of business too!

Well, what you probably don’t know is that the Facebook algorithm is super savvy and it pays attention to how many of those “fans” are actually interested and engaged with what you are posting. Then it makes a determination about how many people it is going to show your posts to.

High engagement = Facebook putting your post out into the feeds of MORE of your followers.

Low engagement (meaning no one is commenting, liking and sharing your posts) = not a damn soul seeing your posts because FB has determined that for someone who has all these fans, they sure don’t seem into you.  Womp, womp.

Your absolute BEST bet is to get REAL fans who ARE actually interested in you and your business!

5. Add people to groups without asking and then do a contest that asks people to add THEIR friends.

Remember, I’m showing you the craptastic advice that you have likely gotten from someone in your company or even from your company. DO NOT DO THIS!  It’s a proven way to get people hating you, it’s a proven way to get into Facebook jail and a proven way to just look like a smarmy marketer who doesn’t know what they are doing.

I’m serious about helping small business owners and direct sellers with their marketing.  Come find me over on Facebook, I promise to help you market in a way that gets you SEEN and appreciated instead of hidden and talked about.