How many times have you posted an item on Facebook or Twitter, only to later see it on your friend’s feed with the exact same wording you used? Annoying, isn’t it? It happens for business and fan pages, too. In the world of the internet it often seems that no one ‘owns’ anything. This is the idea of the Commons, but what is often missing is attribution.
The reality is, your followers are most likely following the same people you might lift content from. So what do we do? Here are five points to consider when using social media to promote your cause.
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Give Credit: Did someone send you photos or a link, even outside of the medium you’re using? Give them credit. A simple “thanks to XXX for sharing this” goes a long way.
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Share & Retweet: Avoid copying information from someone else’s feed and posting it as your own. Instead, click ‘share’ or ‘retweet’ then comment on it from your organization’s perspective. This makes the content unique to you while giving credit to the originator.
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Comment & Respond: If someone comments on your posts and tweets, then you should respond. This is a great way to create a visible dialogue. Make an effort to go through your feed and comment on the content you see.
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More than Views: Eyeballs are great, but you really want interaction. You want people to share and comment on your content. The more you do this with other organizations, the more likely they are reciprocate.
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Win/Win: If you follow these tips, you will not only be helping your community partner, but you help yourself, too. How?
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Facebook and Twitter actually give points for references to other pages. They don’t like it when you’re just broadcasting your own stuff. The platforms are designed for interaction.
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The more you share content and credit, the more likely people will do the same for you.
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The more your content is shared, the higher your virality score will be. You want posts to go viral.
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The more your content is shared, the higher ranking your page and posts gets. This means you’re more likely to show up in someone’s feed.
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From a community engagement perspective, this is about being a good partner, but these tips apply across sectors. Everything I know, I learned from Mashable, Beth Kanter, Kivi Leroux Miller, and Nancy Swartz. (will add links to their blogs) Did you see that? I just gave them credit.
Photo Courtesy: Jason Howie