Stop Saying Thank You on Social Media and Say Something Meaningful!

Do you find yourself saying thanks a lot on social media?

Ever thought WHY you do that?

In this article, I am going to tell you to stop thanking people.

Have I gone mad? I'll tell you why...

I've been blogging for over two years now, and it's encouraging to see many people sharing my articles. Some of these people share straight from my blog using one of the social networking share buttons or from my RSS news feed. I am incredibly grateful to these people, and I do try and respond to as many of the people who share my articles to say thank you.

But why?

Why do I say thank you on Twitter? A strange question, you ask?

Being encouraging is part of my nature, and I value politeness very highly. I always say please and thank you in real life, so surely it's the same on social media.

Well, kind of...

The thing is, sometimes a "thank you" can lose its value in the noise and sheer volume of posts.

Do you find yourself replying, sending a direct message or commenting with the following?

All of the above examples are very polite and encouraging, but what do they actually mean? Have you thought about the meaning of your "thank you" messages, or are you just doing what everyone else is doing?

Don't get me wrong, I am doing exactly the same- but recently, I was made to think about whether all this thanking was doing any good. I have marketing consultant Mark Schaefer to thank for that. Thanks, Mark... (oops...!)

It was one of Mark's blog posts entitled "Why I Stopped Thanking People on the Social web" that made me stop and think. 聽Do read it- it will give you an idea of what I am referring to.

In the article, Mark says that the tipping point came when someone tweeted him:

You are too damn polite... Stop thanking people, will you!

Ouch.

Mark then went on to say...

I knew he had a point. I had reached the thank you tipping point. So I stopped.

This saddened me. I hate it that the more popular you become on the social web, the less engaging you can be. Isn鈥檛 that ironic? The very characteristic people appreciate is doomed over time. Authentic social media engagement is not scalable.

I think Mark makes an interesting point. 聽Social media is about creating meaningful content or building meaningful relationships- and that includes replies.

It's also about knowing who is in your core community and knowing why people are sharing your content in the first place.

So, returning to the above example of "thank you" messages, let's do a bit of translating. Could it be that the above messages could mean the following?....

OK, please note that I had my tongue firmly in my cheek with the above, but I hope you got my point!

How about doing something a little different?

Instead of just thanking them, why not introduce them to someone else they might find interesting? How about reading one of their articles and giving some feedback? You won't necessarily be able to do that with all your replies, but you could create an opportunity and build upon the relationship.

We've missed something, though, and it is a biggy...

Encouragement.

Most of us like to be encouraged. If we don't get any feedback, it can be a bit depressing.

Words of Affirmation is one of the 5 Love Languages (read the book if you haven't already). Each of us accepts and gives love and attention in different ways, but one that works well on the social web is Words of Affirmation- encouragement.

I love it when someone leaves a comment on my articles, but the truth is that most readers of blogs don't.

Talk to most bloggers out there, and they'll tell you the same- they wish they had more comments. The same goes for Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. It's great when someone replies, mentions us or leaves a comment.

However, which would you prefer- 20 "thank you for your article" one-line comments or five longer comments where they share their thoughts? We need to be encouraging but also add value to the conversation. That's how it is in real life, so why should it be any different online?

So what should we do instead? I'm not saying we should never just say thank you, but in most cases, you should always be looking to make your engagement more meaningful.

So here is my "thank you" Replacement List.

"That's all very well", you say, "but I don't have enough time!".

I 聽understand- I have the same issue. However, that's why spending time thanking everyone without a strategy isn't going to help you!

Firstly, make your own "thank you" replacement list and save it somewhere where you can easily access it. This could be in a Google Doc or a notes app such as Notion or Evernote.

Secondly, a social inbox tool can REALLY help you reply and engage more efficiently.

I'm a massive fan of the social media management tool, Agorapulse. It has an incredibly easy-to-use and powerful social media inbox. And if you're worried that this will be expensive, don't be.

Firstly Agorapulse has a generous free plan which allows you to manage up to 3 different social channels and a basic social inbox. You can even use the Agorapulse mobile app on the move with the free plan.

And with the paid plans, more often than not, Agorapulse is cheaper than Hootsuite or Sprout Social.

With the Agorapulse social inbox, you can quickly respond to people who have shared your content.

With your "thank you replacement" list to hand, you can quickly go through your pending replies and mentions and actually engage much more meaningfully with the core people in your community. You may discover people who you haven't engaged with before- people who you didn't realise were in your community.

Click here to find out more and to sign up for Agorapulse.

So, have I got you thinking? Do you agree or disagree? Do you have a plan or strategy for how you engage with people using social media? I'd love to know. As always, please leave your comment below (even if it is a "thank you for your article!" comment!)