"You Always Have Your Stalkers"...and other social media advice

Professor Christy Perry Tuohey presented to our PRL 614 (Advanced Writing for Digital Platforms) class today, bringing with her a wealth of social media tips, tactics and words of caution.  Perhaps her most valuable tips were those that were most practical:

1. Don't overpost
2. Always give links (videos, photos, interactive content)
3. Use hashtags (but don't overuse them!)
4. Don't duplicate information across social media platforms
5. Give credit to friends, colleagues, and content creators

While numbers 1, 2 and 5 are easy enough for me to put into practice, numbers 3 and 4 are those with which I often struggle.  With twitter, hashtagging provides a great opportunity to categorize one's posts and to have the posts heard on a larger scale.  For example, when tweeting for the LGBT advocacy conference I run, I tweeted a sympathetic post about the Chardon, OH shootings, expressing concern for those affected.  In that tweet, I used the common hashtag, "#Chardon".  Little did I know that that one hashtag would propel that tweet onto the national stage, resulting in hateful tweets from the Westboro Baptist Church being sent to my little, fifteen-man organization.  One simple hashtag brought my organization and our message to a much broader audience, even though that audience responded in hate.  It will be difficult (yet imperative) for me to limit my tendency to end some of my tweets with hashtags categorizing them, as Professor Tuohey recommended.

Number 4 (don't duplicate information across social media platforms) will also be a challenge for me.  It is so easy to simply link one's Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts, and feel that you have all the bases covered.  However, as Professor Tuohey pointed out, one's audience (that of an organization or an individual) does not want to see the same information twice.  The modern attention span is barely able to digest information even once, let alone twice or multiple times.  For this reason, I will be sure to follow Professor Tuohey's advice as I manage the Life Gets Better Together account (and my own personal account) this upcoming year, and tailor the content I share on each platform to the audience/platform needs.

Overall, a very impressive presentation from Professor Tuohey, the woman behind the @NewhouseSU mask!