Best practices tip: post high value messages to build your brand

Beyond email - message overload

Messages come to us in many more ways now. Traditionally, people have used email for years to communicate, and share information. Chat rooms have been around for a number of years. Instant messaging came around and a few years ago and quickly gained in popularity with those who wanted to connect via a faster, "in the moment" communication tool.

Social media sites and social networking have fast become part of our culture over the past few years, and are seeing a tremendous spike in both popularity and usage among many age groups.

The end result is that there are so many ways to "connect" and "message" people now, and therein lies the problem - the tendency of many to share too much information of little value; these messages can become very annoying "time wasters".

Do your messages add value? Would others want to share them?

Facebook asks, "What's on your mind?" Twitter asks, "What are you doing?" LinkedIn has a Share window.

The problem is too many people take this literally and often post messages describing their day-to-day mundane activities. Most people don't really want or need to know about one's daily routine.

Best practice tip: Think "what are you focused on?" What value message can you post that others may want to read and share with others?

Protect your brand - send out messages that add value

Some examples of message types that support others and add value: recommendations to great articles, useful links to - tools, tips, late-breaking news, upcoming events, organizational updates, something funny, thought-provoking, or unusual.

"Share really useful links, news related to your field, things that are really funny or inspirational, or inside information about your business or blog. The key is to make sure almost every message is something that people will want to share with their friends. Here’s something that many people who use social media don’t understand: if you send out too many messages, people might stop following you or might even block you, because you’re flooding their inbox."

- From 'Focus on sending out high impact messages' article on Mashable by Leo Babauta, May 14th, 2009

Best practice tip: Focus on sharing valuable content that will benefit others, don't be too self-serving, and promote others when possible. Don't post TOO MANY messages or you may lose followers / connections and be considered a "spammer".

Think BEFORE you send - ask yourself "so what?"

Thinking "so what" at the end of a message is a good test to pre-qualify whether the message may have value (for someone other than you) and have content that followers will want to share with other connections. A message that shares information about a great new social media tool, career networking event, or late-breaking news probably passes this test. What one had for breakfast or lunch, or details about a daily routine, such as running an errand, or taking the dog for a walk, adds little value, and does NOT pass the test.

Think BEFORE you connect

Decide on the type of connections you want to pursue. People who share similar industry experience, club and organizational interests, career networking groups, civic groups, etc. may become strong connections. Pursuing professional connections - industry leaders and those with similar career interests may provide valuable content worthy of sharing, and increase the size of one's network. Connecting with too many people with little or no common interests runs the risk of receiving messages of little value to you, and you may even get "information overload" - too many messages too frequently.

Takeaways:

* Think "so what" BEFORE you post messages
* "Quality", not "quantity"
* "Less is more" when it comes to messages; build your brand as someone who shares valuable content, not someone who "spams" others with too many messages of little value.

From a recent Facebook article I wrote, a few tips on using Facebook professionally also apply here:

* “Less is more” when it comes to pictures and the number of wall updates, so don’t post too many pictures or too many wall updates, or
you may turn people off and lose friends.
* Keep content relevant to your business, career, job or professional interests, avoid political ideology, and any controversial subject
matter.
* Only accept friend requests from people you know well so you can avoid any “surprises”.

Tip: If someone you sends you too many messages or you don't care for the subject matter they contain, you can always "Hide" the messages from that friend so you no longer get them.

Click to view the Best practices article at the Examiner.com, add comments, and share with others.

- Daulton West, Jr. , aka ”dwestjr” on Twitter

Thanks for viewing my article and I hope that you found it useful,

Daulton West, Jr.
ASocialMediaChampion4U.com
Richmond Social Media Examiner

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