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At a loss for how to start this blog post, I researched the definition of “auto-share” and got a search result about a car sharing company in Toronto. That’s not the type of auto-sharing I’m talking about. I’m talking about how you automate the sharing of your social content across multiple platforms.

Why Automate

• Social automation can keep your social feeds more up to date because you can get your newest content on your social feeds quicker.
• Social automation saves time.

When Not to Automate

• Don’t automate by default.
• When your content isn’t relevant to all of the networks you’re being automated to.
• When you don’t know all of the sources your content is being automated to, or what it will look like when automated.
• When it will look automated.

Why Not?

• You will not be able to monitor the network your automated content is being shared on. It’s like sending out a mass text, and then not picking up the phone when someone who received the mass text calls - it’s just bad form.
• You will be using a social tool for sharing both public and private information.
• If you’re unable to track results of the automated content because you’re too busy or because you don’t know where it is, then you shouldn’t be updating automatically - don’t stretch yourself too thin.

Oops!

This advice comes from both personal experience and error. I forgot I had linked my Slide-Share account to my Twitter account after the 2010 PodCamp folks asked me to let them know via twitter when my presentation slides were up. 

Fast forward almost a year later. I’m uploading a password protected pitch presentation for a potential client. It hits Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn without me knowing. Luckily, it was password protected. Unluckily, I looked stupid three times. I was reminded of my option to auto-share when I received three different messages, from three different people, on three different social networks, all letting me know that they clicked the link and it wouldn’t work because it was asking for a password. Lesson learned.

2 comments

Joey Strawn I'm with you whole-heartedly on this one. I actually stand on the side of the fence in that this is a big pet peeve of mine. It seems a lot of people rank the time-sharing benefit above all the possible negatives when it comes to social linking. Each channel has a language and I believe that whatever message you are sending out needs to be structured and formatted for the correct medium.Awesome post and a great list here Kate. Thanks! Sat, Feb 12, 2011 3:48pm

Preparacion de soluciones Great info. Taught me something today. thanks. Mon, Feb 14, 2011 5:37am