It seems like most of us are regular users of social networking media, either Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. While these sites are both entertaining, and useful, the major tendency is to either underuse them or massively overuse them. Underuse doesn't cause much harm, unless you count the opportunities you may be missing. But overuse is a destroyer of relationships.

What you need to understand is that, although they are wrapped up in a a nice disguise, social media sites are essentially mass-mailing prorams. Because of the huge number of applications and other add-ons offered by these sites, it's easy to lose sight of why we're actually there: we are there to exchange information with a lot of people in a short amount of time.

With this in mind, it's easy to see why professional marketers have embraced social media so quickly. But, what they are overlooking is the simple fact that social media sites are subject to the basic psychological laws that rule mass emailing.

1) Too Much Information Causes Burnout
Tweeting, when done well, is an amazing thing. For a talented writer or comedian, one or two simple comments a day can go a long way toward claiming space in someone's mind. It can be a very subtle, enlightening method of reminding people you exist. But, when Tweeting is overdone, it can quickly conjure very negative emotions about the creator. Over-tweeting is a great way to lose followers, business partners, friends. It comes across as childish or shameless.


2) Respect people's preferences
A growing trend in social media is the synching of Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as certain blogging sites. In short, if a person posts a new tweet on their Twitter account, it is automatically duplicated into the status bar of their Facebook account. It is simple programming task, and a neat trick, but it has a tendency to bombard your friends. Facebook is a tool that people use a couple of times a day, mostly to keep track of how their friends and coworkers are doing in general. Twitter, contrarily, is a tool to keep track of the tiny specific details of many different people. By synching your Facebook account with your Twitter account, you are forcing your friends to become your Twitter followers, which is something they never signed up for.


3) Speak correctly
Text-speak is for teenagers. I think I need to repeat that: Text-speak is for teenagers. If you are a grown person, working in a professional field, in 2009, you should act like it. The simple fact of the matter is that you really shouldn't send any message that you can't spend two minutes writing. 140 characters is plenty of space to phrase one clear, succinct idea. If it isn't, use your iPhone to make an actual phone call.