Social Media Over Sharing Sucks
Today I wanted to share my 2 golden penny’s on why sharing too much sucks for you and your followers, then I will share my Chunky Sharing System with you..
What Is Social Media Over Sharing?
It is a 2 prong process… 
First, you share a new tweet or status update every 2 min.
Second, you follow that 2 min sharing routine about 100 – 200 times a day.
Why Is This Bad JP?
Well reader I’m glad you asked, let me share the main ways Social Media over sharing is bad…
It’s Soooooo Annoying
I hate to break it to you, but you are not that important that people want to read that many tweets or shares from you.
You’re Not Really There
Sharing 100 shares a day is a dead giveaway that you’re not really there.
You want to be “there” and available for each tweet to reply to any re-shares or comments each of your share brings in. But when share 200 shares a day, it’s pretty obvious that you are definitely not “there”.
You Don’t Give Your Tweets Time To Work
I have mention this before, but I’ll share it again. You need to separate your tweets and shares by AT LEAST 25 min to give them the time to get seen and read and shared.
Most of my shares get shared more after 10 – 15 min then they do in the first 5 min. That alone should be reason enough to give your shares time to work for you.
But if not, let’s look at it like this…
If you share every 2 min and people decide to read that first share and say it takes them 5 – 10 min to read it.
Now if you are sharing every 2 min, the people reading your previous share WILL NOT see your next 3-5 shares.
I know for me and I’m pretty sure for you too, your goal is to get as many people to see your shares and read your shares and then hopefully re-share them….Right?
Looks like the tweet every 2 min routine is an ass backwards way to share on social media.
You Have Cry Wolf Syndrome
Ok, I’m reaching here a little bit but it works 🙂
Sharing 100 – 200 times a day is a good way to get me to start ignoring your shares.
When you are sharing 100 – 200 shares a day you are lessening the quality of your shares. There is no way that all 200 shares are top quality or share worthy. Your followers will start to learn that you will share anything, good or bad.
The less you share, the more important each of those shares become.
Less Is More….Trust Me
Social media is a good place to practice the “less is more” principal.
Let me share this to show you what I mean…
I follow a local photo group on Facebook and even though it is not a requirement people to stick to the 1 or 2 pictures per share system.
You share a couple in the morning, you share a couple in the evening.
That’s works great! Then you get the one super sharer that thinks… Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to share 15 pictures in 1.5 min?
Now the whole stream is filled with JUST this persons pictures.
What happens?
No one likes the pictures or comments, she is ignored.
Too much of a good thing, doesn’t make it better.
Listen To Mom
Mom’s old school advice fits nicely…
“little Johnny you need to chew your food at least 100 times before you swallow”
Truth was, I don’t think I chewed at all. haha
There was a reason I was called “Boss Hog” at my first communion ceremony when i was dressed all in white.
Ok, for the kiddies out there.. Boss Hog was the police chief on the Dukes Of Hazards tv show in the 80’s and he was umm…fat! 🙂
Chewing slowly gives your body the time to do what it needs to with each bite and gives you the time to enjoy what you’re eating.
Give your followers the time to “chew on and enjoy your shares”
My Chunky Sharing Plan
I get that you want to share peoples stuff and you want to give back to great people that share your stuff. I do this everyday yet I don’t share 100 times a day.
You just have to be more selective and creative on how you share. I use a list of people that I want to share back.. it may be one or two days later but it counts all the same.
For me I tweet in chunks. (hmm seems to be a theme on this post huh 🙂 )
I get “chunky” about 3 – 4 times a day and each “chunk” is 4 – 5 shares:
A chunk in the morning
A chunk in the afternoon
A chunk in the evening
A chunk late at night (occasionally)
Sharing in chunks keeps me sharing nicely thru out the day and night and still frees up more of my time to do MORE important things in my business then social media.
No one has time to read your 100 shares and more importantly, you are most likely getting ignored.
Share less on social media and I promise you each of your shares will get seen more, read more and shared more.
Some great advice here as usual – looks like aiming for a ‘natural’
pattern of automation works well and helps share out valuable
content without upsetting readers with overshare. I love buffer as
a way of remembering to share (via its bookmarklet) and in spacing
out shares – it has saved me lots of time since finding it.
Comment by Sarah Wood — May 24, 2012 @ 5:19 am
Thank U for the comment Sarah…you can use automation or manually
sharing and still share in chunks. I agree.. Buffer works great for
scheduling updates 🙂
Comment by John Paul — May 24, 2012 @ 9:22 am
Great tips as always John Paul. I recently started tweeting a lot
less and after a month, my traffic from sites like BizSugar took a
significant hit. So, I’m trying to go back to what I was doing
while refining it somewhat. Thanks for sharing. In my zeal to get
back the traffic that I lost, I may have been over-tweeting the
last few days.
Comment by Sherryl Perry — May 24, 2012 @ 10:11 am
Thank U Sherryl. You just have to find the sweet spot that get’s
you sharing less and still brings in some traffic. My system works
well for me.. but that doesn’t mean a few more tweets a day is bad.
I just feel 100 a day every 2 min is just a ridiculous idea.
Sometimes I do a “give back” day, usually Sun Where I tweet much
more people then I do the rest of the week, that way I’m giving
back, yet it doesn’t affect my system to much.
Comment by John Paul — May 24, 2012 @ 12:36 pm
Great insight as usual into using social media to communicate
valuable content instead of just posting for the sake of posting.
If you never see a person commenting, replying, quipping, or
engaging… why would you want to follow them? Nice post John!
Comment by Cody Ward — May 24, 2012 @ 10:45 am
Thanks Cody,… Appreciate that. I agree…as much info as there is
shared out there, why follow the guy that doesn’t get in and engage
around his shares? Like anything else.. people are getting smarter
with SM as time goes by.. some things are better, some are worse
lol
Comment by John Paul — May 24, 2012 @ 12:37 pm
Writing is critical to your credibility dude especially for new
visitors. Opening line is “too much” not “to much”. Good points. No
one likes a spammer.
Comment by Ralph Dopping — May 25, 2012 @ 3:44 am
Thanks Ralph
Comment by John Paul — May 25, 2012 @ 12:13 pm
Boss Hog reference was hilarious. I’m glad you can be humorous
about it now.
Comment by thewolfkin — May 25, 2012 @ 9:11 am
lol glad you got that joke.. and yea. the pain has passed 🙂
Comment by John Paul — May 25, 2012 @ 12:12 pm
That’s really sexiest using a little girl with her mouth tapped. As
if females are the only over-talkers. Get out of my email. DL Grace
Comment by Doorethea — May 26, 2012 @ 7:28 am
Grace the image has nothing to do with being sexist or not. I found
the image and liked it and it fit the message. Whether it was a kid
or grown up or girl or boy was completely irrelevant.
Comment by John Paul — May 26, 2012 @ 7:42 am
Yes, oversharing is sooooooooooooooo annoying and overkill. I
generally care until you make me stop caring with your excessive
shares.
Comment by Marcie_Hill — May 26, 2012 @ 12:58 pm
Marcie I couldn’t agree more 🙂
Comment by John Paul — May 26, 2012 @ 3:22 pm
Useful article, thanks. You don’t want people to forget you, but
you don’t want to get on their nerves either! – Ian (old enough to
get the Dukes of Hazzard reference)
Comment by Baja By Bus — May 26, 2012 @ 2:02 pm
Thanks Ian Next time you comment, Please use ONLY your name in the
name field.. Thanks 🙂
Comment by John Paul — May 26, 2012 @ 3:23 pm
Very interesting – I’ve noticed it too – if a do over tweet I lose
followers and when I tone is down I get more followers. I also use
the buffer app to help calm my tweeting down and time it via
SocialBro. I do keep notifications on so I can always respond when
necessary. I will sometimes stop following someone if they
have like 10 or more tweets one after another in the
stream and they are not engaging with anyone either.
Comment by Lisa Buben — May 27, 2012 @ 4:41 am
Lisa.. I dump people for the same reason.. unless the tweets are
conversation replies. But if it’s tweets of links then they are
gone haha 100 a day is to much.. but not sure what is a “ok”
amount. maybe 30 a day is a limit as long as they are spread out. I
think issue is more about how close you teet, like every 2 min.
more then the total tweets a day. If you spread out your tweets by
at least 20 min and take a break thru the day then you will be
fine. You followers wont be annoyed and you will sharing great
content one regular basis.
Comment by John Paul — May 27, 2012 @ 7:26 am
Excellent post. I wish this was required reading for all social
media marketers.
Comment by PamAnnMarketing — May 27, 2012 @ 10:34 am
TY Pam.. I Appreciate that. Hope it helps 🙂 Oh by the way.. when
you comment next time, please ONLY use your name in the name
field.. Thank U 🙂
Comment by John Paul — May 27, 2012 @ 3:44 pm
I would but when logged into Disqus it doesn’t give me a
choice.
Comment by PamAnnMarketing — May 27, 2012 @ 5:53 pm
You can edit your name in your Disqus name settings. I ask for name
only to keep the comments clean. It’s my comment policy.
Comment by John Paul — May 27, 2012 @ 6:40 pm
Test
Comment by Xnew2thisx — May 28, 2012 @ 7:04 am
Hi John Paul I enjoyed your tips, I like to use both Buffer
and manual to Tweet and share. I agree that it is so annoying to
see so many tweets in a short space of time. Have a great weekend
Pauline
Comment by Pauline — June 1, 2012 @ 2:33 am
Pauline.. glad you enjoyed the post. I use both too. Those tools
help a lot, but I think some people over use them because it’s so
easy to schedule a million posts and walk away.
Comment by John Paul — June 1, 2012 @ 11:04 am
I definitely have to agree with this. You don’t want to bombard
your followers with tons of info.
Comment by Justin Dupre — June 3, 2012 @ 9:05 pm
Share enough to be helpful but not to much to be annoying.
Comment by John Paul — June 4, 2012 @ 6:45 am
Awesome advice, JP! I could certainly learn a lesson or two from
this, that’s for sure. To be honest with you, it’s gotten in the
way of me finishing a lot of my writing projects – my book being
the main thing. I am currently trying to work out a better balance,
and this will certainly prove to be a lot more helpful for me.
Thanks for sharing your insights on this bud! Great
information!
Comment by Deeone Higgs — June 7, 2012 @ 7:05 am
Thanks Deeone.. that is the best reason to go with less shares but
better quality.. so you can get other things done that are more
important. As long as you are present here n there thru the day
that’s all you need. The trick is to be remembered and not ignored.
Comment by John Paul — June 7, 2012 @ 7:39 am
over thanking people for their comments or likes on your post on Facebook, that’s definitely “oversharing”, I know you are grateful for the attention you receive but your gratefulness shows up every time on my newsfeed! The result? you have been hidden from my newsfeed. take that to the bank!…lol
Comment by disqus_UtXnQmRIQ7 — January 31, 2013 @ 5:04 pm
I think I will sleep just fine knowing Im not in your news feed. 🙂
Comment by John Paul — February 1, 2013 @ 11:54 am
Hey John, I use Buffer and HootSuite to stagger my social shares. The only place that doesn’t work is on my Google + profile. There’s an extension called DoShare but your browser needs to be open in order for it to work – that doesn’t really get the job done. Thanks for the post John.
Comment by Ileane — April 20, 2013 @ 4:17 am
TY for the heads up.. I do Google + manually.. hoping hootsuite adds it soon.
and TY glad u liked the post 🙂
Comment by John Paul — April 20, 2013 @ 10:34 am
Great points John. After my learning curve and listening to many who promote a need of constant presences (noise) I have changed my tactic. Cutting back, following a timed schedule with structured content has made a big deference. Allows me to have more real engagement.
Comment by RandyBowden — July 21, 2013 @ 1:49 pm
Randy the ones with constant noise are the biggest fakes online. Real influence comes when you walk away.
Sharing less and targeted content is something I have preached for years.. some get it and some don’t haha
Glad you learned what works for you.
Comment by John Paul — July 21, 2013 @ 2:43 pm
Thank you John for the tips. Recently I noticed, the tweets and shares should be distributed over 24 hours. I was not using tools much and doing most of the shares manually, but I was missing the half of the day. The day before, I scheduled messages for the night shift and noticed significant traffic to my blog.
Comment by Suresh Khanal — July 21, 2013 @ 5:06 pm
Suresh the tools make life so much easier haha
Sveduling less, but thru out the whole day is the best way to get seen, and drive people to your blog.
Glad you are seeing results man 🙂
Comment by John Paul — July 22, 2013 @ 4:21 am
Hi John, I’m pretty new to twitter and blogging and even I knew, intuitively, that some folks are over doing it. Some people in my feed are there regardless the time I check in.
BTW, my wife is a kidney donor! All the best to you.
Comment by Darrell — July 21, 2013 @ 5:13 pm
Darrell, I see it everyday from newbies to “experienced” people. What people dont get is, you are not that important that I need to see 400 tweets a day lol
You do that, and people will tune you out.
Comment by John Paul — July 22, 2013 @ 4:20 am
Great post John. I like the idea of chunking content. You also take the time to engage with people that share your content. That gratitude leads to more people sharing your content.
Comment by Praverb — July 21, 2013 @ 8:06 pm
That’s the secret man.. The TY’s by themselves are great. But real value is that it’s a nice way to stay in front of people and it also gets more tweets because people know I will thank them in my stream.
It’s a win win win win all around.
Comment by John Paul — July 22, 2013 @ 4:22 am
That is why you are the KING haha.
Comment by Praverb — July 22, 2013 @ 9:48 am
haha i wish
Comment by John Paul — July 22, 2013 @ 10:02 am
Less is more is my motto JP. I don’t tweet a lot. Sharing posts, tweeting less is always more to me. I also don’t use automation for Twitter. Never understood all those hundreds of tweets. When I see people doing it I get the knee jerk reaction that they are saying “Look at Me” and that does me no good at all! Just my two cents!
-Donna
Comment by Donna Merrill — August 31, 2014 @ 11:13 am
I don’t get it either Donna. 5 is to low, but 100 is to high. You have to find a happy middle that fits into your day and keeps you active but not annoting
Comment by John Paul — September 2, 2014 @ 10:33 am
Hey John, What is your rule of thumb of re-sharing previously shared content? Obviously a little diversity is favorable, what is your best practice on this? I usually find there’s merits in squeezing more out of previously created content.
Comment by Michael Bergen — January 15, 2015 @ 3:02 pm
Michael, Thanks for stopping by.
My take on it is, you took the time to write somethign good and helpful, why not reshare it weeks and months even years later?
If the advice still applies and is still helpful then share it.
What I do is I scroll thru my archives.. and on NON post days I share 1 or 2 posts and I just go down the line. When I get to the end of my archives. I go back to the top and start again.
for me it rotates every few months.. so your resharing something every few months so it works.
I can say this has worked VERY well for me over the past 5 years.
Comment by John Paul — January 16, 2015 @ 7:10 am