12 Turkeys You’ll Find On Social Media This Thanksgiving

12 Social Media Types To Avoid

While social media encourages transparent communications, many participants still try to game the system making themselves a nuisance for others. As a participant, the best way to handle them is to avoid them.

In honor of Thanksgiving, here are twelve turkeys you’ll find on social media platforms and how to steer clear of them. (Note: Despite the use of he, these participants can be male or female.)

1. The ME-ME-ME Guy. This participant talks about himself endlessly, whether it’s what he’s doing or what he’s thinking. When he occasionally comes up for air, he asks what do you think of him. (Here’s how to show respect for others on social media.)
2. The Egg Head. This participant has joined social media but still hasn’t figured out that he needs to personalize his profile including an image of himself. He looks like a bot because he has no profile image or other information. (Here are some related Twitter recommendations.)
3. The Ranter. This person is always complaining and never has a good word to say about anyone. Beware—he’s liable to make you look bad.
4. The Hawker. This participant uses social media as another medium to blast out their marketing promotions aimed at getting people to buy his product. (Here are some social media tips around selling and other tips around being too promotional.)
5. The Gone Fishing. This participant appears to have disappeared. He hasn’t left any sign of life in a long time.
6. The Faker. This participant has a lot of bravado and acts like he knows what he’s doing but in reality he’s totally clueless. He’ll do anything to get followers, including buying them. (Note: I don’t recommend doing this!)
7. The One Note Charlie. This participant continually harps on the same point regardless of the conversation.
8. The Fault Finder. This participant is always trying to show that you’re wrong, especially about some small point. They’re like a dog with a bone that won’t let go.
9.  The Gamer. This participant is always looking for the easily way out. He tries to game the system by looking for loopholes.
10. The Sideliners. These people pay attention to what’s happening and are engaged on social media but aren’t willing to participate.
11. The Bragger. This participant is always showing off to impress others. His computer is bigger than your computer; his smartphone is smarter than yours.
12. The Profaner. This participant is ready to drop four letter words into every conversation just to get attention.

Often the easiest way to handle these social media types is to avoid them since once you start to engage with them, they’re likely to keep arguing with you. Like trolls, the less you pay attention to them the better off you are.

What other types would you add to this list and why?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles you may find of interest:

• 47 Social Media Charts You Need
• Don’t tweet this. 
• 50 Questions to determine social media succes
• Social Media’s 10 Commandments

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/catbeurnier/5186979496/