Common mistakes Nigerians make on social media
Almost everyone - old, young and middle-aged - is obsessed with the desire to own an influential social media page on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and in that bid have fallen into several traps, some of them having irreversible negative effects on the user.
Unfortunately, there is are no strict 'dos and 'don'ts' for these social media platforms and not a lot of people know about these pitfalls. In that regard, Jovago.com, Africa's No. 1 online hotel booking portal has listed some of these social media mistakes that Nigerians need to avoid.
Using irrelevant hashtags
Yes, the hashtag is cool and certainly hints that the user is well versed in the social media lingo, however, most Nigerians now tend to use it inappropriately and in situations where it is completely insignificant or irrelevant. For users with a business account, "over-hashtagging" can be detrimental to your well laid-out marketing strategies and for ordinary users, it is just simply in bad taste as it dilutes the validity of the trend.
Publishing 'private posts' to the public
Every social media platform has some sort of directive that allows users to censor or regulate the content they publish, however, it seems a major percentage of the tech savvy population in Nigeria is still unaware of these provisions. You find users publishing messages and pictures that should be restricted to a close-knit group to everyone connected to them.
They unknowingly bare it all, creating room for some corrupt users to misappropriate the information they find on the page. It is important that users check their settings before posting messages, pictures or video and before accepting requests.
Accepting requests from strangers
As a child, almost everyone was advised to refrain from talking to strangers. It is important to apply the same rule when mingling with contacts on the social media. A lot of Nigerians either out of idleness or in the bid to gain popularity on a platform, accept requests and befriend followers that they do not know or have any link to.
While this may seem adventurous, it is a huge risk as people can hide their true intent and delude others as well as dupe them in various ways. It is important to be cautious so as not to fall for this trap.
Merging business with pleasure
This is a common trap that most users who also have business in Nigeria keep falling into. They either create a personal page but keep promoting their business on it, or worse they create an official page for their business but post personal unrelated content on the business page. Aside from the fact that it is often very confusing for members of your community, it could cause more harm than good.
Posting business on a personal page could lead to your users getting utterly irritated and eventually moved to block your content from reaching their timeline. It is important to separate business from pleasure. If you must, create separate accounts for the different purposes.
Posting the same content on all accounts
What is the point in having different accounts on several platforms if you are going to have the same followers see you post the same exact messages? The idea behind social media is to get social and keep things interesting.
Facebook, Instagram as well as Twitter each require a different quality of tone and the users on these various platforms have different expectations. It is better to alter your posts to suit the audience on specific platforms while expressing your ideas and opinions on them. Dynamic videos and diverse images help you get the attention you are searching for on these platforms.
