7 Ways I Can Tell You've Got Social Chops (& 5 Ways I Know You Don't)

When someone says, “Everybody’s doing it,” I generally turn and run.

But when it comes to social media, you can learn a lot from what other people are doing.

I’ve discovered a ton from watching others trek the social media highway, and of course, hitting my own potholes along the way. It’s a short ride from bad to good, but it’s easy to get lost on the road from good to great.

How can you tell who’s got it going on (socially)? Here are 7 ways I know you’ve got social media in your blood (and 5 ways I can tell you need some advice).

1) You treat social media like real life

The problem with common sense is that it isn’t all that common.

Think of social media in terms of real life relationships. After all, social media is, well…social.

You don’t always need to be “on brand”, show some personality. Don’t socialize like a robot.

You wouldn’t walk up to someone at a party and dive right into your sales pitch. You would probably find some similar interests and connect with them in a meaningful way first. Example: You both have three kids, you’re both from Queens. You like the Red-Sox, he/she likes the Yankees.

• On social media just like in real life, your choice of language can emphasize a point. You don’t always need extra help with punctuation. Posting. Periods. After. Every. Word. is a rookie move.
• You wouldn’t say the same thing over and over again and dominate a first-time conversation by talking only about yourself.
• You should probably ask questions to learn more about the other person and their passions. This is how you develop a real relationship.
• Don’t scream at them. I see this all the time, people sharing in ALL CAPS!!!

Build relationships online just like you do off.

2) You leave room for retweets

People are lazy. Your status updates that need extensive editing work simply get fewer reshares. Ideally, you should limit your tweets to between 80 and 105 characters.

Take this Action: Don’t over-hashtag your tweets, it looks JV.

BONUS: The ideal length for everything online -- infographic.

3) Your pictures are worth a thousand words

We are sharing photos online at an exponential rate (more than 350 million photos each day, just on Facebook). There are now easily more than 100 billion photos online. As a result, one of the greatest marketing adages of the 20th century – “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” – is eroding right in front of our eyes.

What can you do to stand out, when your best engagement vehicle is being diluted 350 million times a day?

Don’t look for images that shock. Instead go with images that make you feel good. It will probably make others feel good too.

Take this Action: Stop using stock photos. There are only so many out there, and everyone on the Internet has seen them by now. Take your own photos. Use your mobile phone. The realness will add authenticity. Make your homemade images black and white or add color filters to make them dazzle.

4) You disseminate content you wish you’d written

80% of your shares should be other people’s content. Leaving 20% of your updates about you and containing your content. It’s less about promotion and more about helping. Choosing the right content that interests your followers is just as good as creating the content yourself.

Content curation is key. Sharing relevant articles from several sources—is an important way to provide that value to your fans. Self-promotion gets annoying fast. Quality content distribution tells your audience that you know your industry inside and out. It tells them you're innovative and informed. Most importantly it shows you enjoy helping others.

Take this Action: Just like Google, Buzzsumo is a content search engine. All you have to do is type a phrase (or link) into Buzzsumo, and it will show you a list of content from around the web. It displays everything in order of popularity. So what you’re seeing has already been vetted for quality and is being shared on social media more than any other posts about your topic.

5) You ask for retweets

"Please RT" gets 4x as many retweets as a tweet without. Most of your readers won’t read your content and think, “I want to share this.” You have to encourage them.

6) You legitimize the digital

Share too many cat videos, kid pictures or Internet GIFs, and you’re just reinforcing the image of the Internet as the land of the trivial and frivolous.

For this reason, content style and tone of digital voice are extremely important.

• Do you have wit?
• Are you aware of relevant events, so you can join in the banter without ever sounding misinformed or disconnected from the real world?
• And most importantly, can you convey complex issues in surprisingly simple ways to a broad audience?

Great content needs to be partnered with a mature head.

7) You . before you @

I know you’ve seen this before. It’s no typo. When you’re talking to someone specific, make it public. Share your exchanges with everyone, it encourages engagement and gets others in the conversation. By starting with @ you only speak to that profile.

Take this Action: Put a character before you link the recipient’s handle and your response becomes public.

5 Social Media Mistakes

1) You only post when you’re free

This one’s obvious. A better approach would be to look at the best times for posting content and work those into your strategy.

Facebook engagement is 18% higher on Thursdays and Fridays. For Twitter, on the other hand, weekends are the best for click-through rates. Just because you’re looking at your network, doesn’t mean your network is paying attention to you.

So what are the best times to post on social media?

2) You speak the same language across networks

You can’t imagine how often I see this. Using hashtags on LinkedIn, does nothing but tell your audience you don’t know what you’re doing, or you’re using a social media blasting tool and you just don’t care.

What I’d like to see you do is match the right content to the right network and be mindful of the tone and language of each network. Twitter has a feature that allows you to share your tweets to Facebook, and LinkedIn lets you share updates to Twitter. Stay away from this multi-channel messaging feature and you’ll be just fine.

Take this Action: Take the extra 30 seconds and share an original message on each channel.

3) You only share content once

Big mistake. I have 13,000+ followers on Twitter. No way they are all paying attention at the same time. And unlikely they will see an older share in the firehouse barrage of content that’s zipping by. You’ve got good stuff to share, make sure your fan-base can see it. Sharing the same link 10 times in two hours is bad.

Take this Action: Hi-jacking hashtags is ugly. Sharing awesome content at peak times throughout the week is attractive.

I’ve examined the click-through patterns on repeat tweets, and each one gets about the same amount of traffic. If I tweeted stories only once, I would lose 75% of the traffic that I could get. – Guy Kawasaki

4) You auto message followers

You want to thank your new follower, tell them to visit your website, or ask them to connect on LinkedIn. Please don’t send an auto generated, generic message. Auto DMs are awfully impersonal and seen as spam. Sending auto DMs not only feels inconsiderate, but it also makes you look like a newbie, who just doesn’t understand social media etiquette.

5) You have zero relationship with Google+

The term ‘ghost town’ has been tossed around. But don’t ignore Google+ and its 540 million active monthly users. Not only does Google Plus generate more brand engagement than you think, but she’s the queen of SEO land. No surprise.

Not too long ago you had to have a Google+ account in order to use Gmail. That has since been changed to allow users to opt out of Google+ and still get an account. A study by my friends at MOZ found that “After page authority, a URL's number of Google +1’s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor.” In fact, the correlation of Google +1s beat out other well-known metrics including linking root domains, Facebook shares, and even keyword usage. If you want your page crawled and indexed almost immediately on Google, share on Google and +1 your own content.

Take this Action: Breakthrough the140-character limit. Google+ encourages conversation. This begins with more (longer) content. Write (or paste) an entire blog post on your Google+ page and +1 it. Within 24 hours the link will be indexed by Google.

7 Expert Social Media Tactics:

1. You treat social media like real life
2. You leave room for retweets
3. Your pictures are worth a thousand words
4. You disseminate content you wish you’d written
5. You ask for retweets
6. You legitimize the digital
7. You . before you @

5 Social Media Mistakes:

1. You only post when you’re free
2. You speak the same language across networks
3. You only share content once
4. You auto message followers
5. You have zero relationship with Google+

Follow Guy Kawasaki or me (@JoshDruck) on Twitter