Five things to avoid on Facebook

And as an avid Facebook user these things really get on my nerves. I think the points should become part of acceptable internet behaviour on social-networking platforms. Listed in no particular order.

1) Avoid attention-seeking posts

I’m really not a fan of posts which are obviously designed to draw attention to people’s sorrowful state. Posts like, “Oh no not again. Why do I have to go through this … ” are designed to get people to comment.

But it’s cry wolf syndrome and sooner or later people stop commenting. Social networks are to spread information, friends and family are for support. The two should not be mixed.

2) Watch excessive concurrent posting

This is particularly a problem with Fan Pages but applies to individuals as well. People with Fan pages often post a whole amount of information at once.

This results in their fans getting a whole bunch of posts in a row and if you’re viewing Facebook on your mobile phone, it is particularly annoying because you have to click “see more stories” just to see the next post.

Rather space it out. Media houses like Time Magazine etc do it that way, which is much better.

3) Don’t link Twitter through Facebook

Avid tweeters who link their Facebook and Twitter account are going to annoy their Facebook friends.

There are a multiple ways around this though. For example, Tweetdeck allows you to integrate with Facebook and specify when the post goes onto Facebook.

There are other apps that will pull a tweet into Facebook if you end it with #FB etc.

4) Keep private posts private

Some people should be using their Facebook inbox or even email for some comments which they instead just post on people’s walls. Husbands and wives sending “lovey-dovey” posts can get really annoying as can parents and children talking about when they are going to chat on Skype.

5) Use lists

You can categorise your friends into list and then when you post you can specify who sees the post by clicking on the share button.

This if important for people with large groups of friends as some people aren’t interested in some of the things you write. Unfortunately specifying who sees the post is not available on mobile yet.

For example I love rugby and used to post my comments on a game while watching. But some friends hated it because they don’t like rugby and because I could not specify from my handset, I stopped doing it.

The same should be true of any keen interest you may have. As a Christian, I see a lot of Christians post things very specific to their beliefs on Facebook. Many of the people on my Facebook friends list would not even understand what such posts are saying as they are not Christians.

In the end you’re either going to get unfriended or removed from people’s newsfeeds.