You are up on all the latest social media tech. You have every account you own hooked up to Hootsuite and your posts are scheduled for 3 times a day for the next 2 months. You post the pretty pictures of the nice sunset and a funny video of a cat riding a vacuum. You have 2,000 friends who wish you happy birthday and say how nice it is to meet you. So why do you only have superficial comments or the non-committal “like”?

Some questions you need to ask yourself:

1. Are you being yourself?

Of course you are being you, but are you being a safe version of you? Are you being genuine in your posts? Are you actually writing from your personality? Are you really making comments about you, your life and your world view or are you playing it safe?

People get bored reading about how nice the flowers are or what the weather is like. If you do not feel comfortable posting about the real things going on in your life then you need to make your safe posts interesting. Put some stank on it!

Here is an example taken from Joel Davis’s profile. Joel Davis is running for NM House of Representatives, Dist. 44. 
Joel Davis: “Apparently we are really cool because Netflix added the genre “Dark Dysfunctional-Family TV Shows” to our suggested titles because…”Your taste preferences created this row.” Thanks Netflix for the kind words.”

This is an excellent post about a safe topic. It is funny and satirical. It shows his personality but is not personally revealing.

2. Is it all about you?

Do you only post about you? Do you ever actually interact with anyone else or re-post someone else’s content? If you realize that the only interactions you have on Facebook are the occasional “like” and posting your own updates, you need to realize that there is more out there than you. Many of your friends are posting funny and dynamic content. Take the time to read what they have to say or to even write a comment on their update. You cannot expect people to interact with you if you are not interacting with them. Remember, social media is about being social. It is a conversation not a soap box.

3. Do you actually log in to Facebook?

I know this seems like a silly question, but with great tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck you can feel like you are taking care of your Facebook without ever actually going ON Facebook. If you stop and think and realize that you have not actually logged on to your profile in weeks, maybe it is time to turn off the auto-posts and start being social with your media. Relationships take work, and social networks are no exception.

What it comes down to is that your social networks cannot be on autopilot. Social media is about building relationships and if you want to host the conversation you have to at least be a part of the conversation. So get out there and start relating!

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