Social media spammers are considered rude.
Have you heard there is an etiquette to blogging? Blogging involves a protocol, an etiquette, as real as which side of the plate to put the salad fork on when you’re setting the table for a dinner party–an etiquette even Emily Post, who is famous for giving advice involving manners, would be proud of.
There are these unwritten rules, you see, and you can’t break them, or you risk being labelled, not uncouth, but spammy.
While I have not Googled spam, spammy, or spammer, the implication is all too clear. Any self-serving bloggers, any bloggers who dare to promote themselves in an overtly spammy way, get the dreaded label.
I even know of a blogger who got his WordPress privileges suspended for–you guessed it–being so self-promoting he was considered spammy.
On the other hand, it is common knowledge that to succeed in blogging, you must promote your writing. How to do it without being considered a spammer is the subject of this post.
- On the weekends, pin your post graphics onto your Pinterest boards every thirty minutes. If you do it more than that, the people who follow you will get annoyed. Set the reminder on your phone if you have to. Saturday and Sunday are the best days since that’s when the pinning world is on Pinterest.
- As I explained in How to Use Your Blog Readers to Get More Blog Readers, post your links on Twitter on times on the clock divisible by the number 3–3:00, 6:00, 9:00, etc. If you use Hootsuite (Can We Really Trust Hootsuite?), you don’t have to be at a computer or even awake to do this. Be sure to use different words with each Twitter post of the same link, so it doesn’t look like your overly promoting yourself. No spammy labels for you!
In addition to Hootsuite tweeting your links, other users can retweet your links for you. To increase the chances of your Tweets getting retweeted, attach a photo and ask users to RT. Statistics show the odds of your blog post links getting retweeted increase dramatically with a photo attached or a request for a retweet.
- Have a forum signature. Do NOT post your link inside of a comment. Sorry, it’s considered spammy. However, if, when you are done commenting, you sign your name, your blog, and your site URL, you will have promoted your blog without looking like a spammer.
- Make a Facebook page for your blog. This will enable you to post your post links without looking like you are being overly self-promoting to your Facebook friends.
Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to create the page. Click on brand or product. You will see a drop down menu. Select website. Type in the name of your blog and agree to Facebook’s terms. Click Get Started. Fill in the requested information. Upload a picture when prompted to. I’m told readers don’t take social media users seriously if they don’t bother to post a photo of themselves.
The bottom line is you should promote your blog posts on social media without anyone getting wise to the fact that you are promoting your blog posts on social media. If you use the tips in this post, you will be considered polite, not–the dreaded label–spammy.
