We all have our own list of pet peeves with Social Media. There are plenty of articles explaining what really miffs us off about social media.  Here is a list of articles on the subject to save you the trouble of googling it yourself:

http://socialmediatoday.com/rebecca-her/1786731/top-facebook-pet-peeves-small-businesses

http://gigaom.com/2010/08/11/8-social-media-pet-peeves-and-what-to-do-about-them/

I need to take a moment to say that I consider myself qualified to remark on these, because I have almost certainly been guilty of all of these at some time and to varying degrees.

In the early days of Facebook I’d hop online after one or two tooooo many wines.
OH THE HORROR!

Anyway, I’d like you to benefit from the wisdom of mine and others’ mistakes.

Here are just a few of the social media faux pas that we all ought to be mindful of:

The Painfully Proud Parent
Truth is, most people like hearing about kids antics, and seeing cute pictures of our friends’ young families growing up. ONCE IN A WHILE!

– Trademarks:

•  Seriously spamming everyone with paintings or pictures your precious kids drew, stories of their potty training antics, ten thousand photos of them rolling over for the first time or eating an ice cream… You get the idea.
• Baby talking ON YOUR status updates. Seriously, I find this quite remarkable, seriously, do these people not have spell check? Cause spell check would not like that one bit.
• Publishing every minor milestone. There are times that many milestones are reached in close succession, and if you find yourself posting updates about your precious bundle more than a dozen times a day, you may want to rethink your strategy.

-Tips

• Keep your content light
• Don’t post too often
• Put up one or two pictures of your precious bundle looking angelic,
  instead of 20 or 30
• Poop pictures are out completely
• Actually, any photos taken in the bathroom are probably best avoided.
• Have a special page for everything kid related for friends and family to subscribe to if they choose
• Find other proud parent groups and forums to post to your hearts content on! These places are great and you can find like minded individuals and EVEN SHARE POOP PICTURES!

Serial Relationship guy

The VAST majority of these guys (who are probably more often actually girls) are teens, tweens, and recently single men and women. I’ve been guilty of changing my own status to “it’s complicated” and then flew off to San Francisco without my husband for a couple of weeks some years back now. So anyone can fall prey to being this guy.

– Trademarks

• Changes relationship status monthly or even weekly
• Complains bitterly about ex and 24 hours later singing the praises of “The one, NO REALLY! This is the ONE! I think we’re going to get MARRIED!”

-Tips

• Just don’t
• A relationship is private and special when it is starting out, so try and keep it on the down-low until you’ve moved in together at least maybe?

The Oversharer or TMI guy

We have all been guilty of this. Whether it is because we have too much time on our hands or we feel a little bit needy,  we have all turned to social media, looking for validation and interaction and perhaps given far too much away.

-Trademarks:

• Posting about EVERYTHING that happens – from breakfast to bowel movements.
• Posting photos of injuries, mysterious rashes, every new purchase… you get the idea.
• Spam spam, wonderful spam. Posting more than 10 times a day is simply not okay. Tweeting, no problem, but probably a bit too much for Facebook.

-Tips:

• Find private groups to share your enthusiasm in. I belong to a pregnant ladies private group with a few dozen women, and we spam each other incessantly and over-share about fears, bodily functions, and can post as many belly shots and photos of our baby scans as we want. Know your audience, and try and keep the personal stuff out of the completely exposed public forum.
• Think: Would I be okay with my kids and/or grandparents to see this post? If the answer is no, maybe don’t put it up.

Next instalment

• – The Purveyor of Politics or Soap Box Guy
• – The MEGA Motivator
• – Food Porn Perv
• – Eeyore
• – Chain Letter Spammer
• – Warnings and Fear Mongering Sharer (this guy doesn’t check snopes.com)

Written by one of the Social Soup Directors ( We will not divulge which one)