Successful social media is something of an art form—with lots of gray areas. Building a successful online presence takes a good amount of flexibility and a little bit of experimentation. But even though I encourage people to find their sweet spots, there are a few things you want to avoid. Today I’d to weigh in on linking your social media accounts and other major blogging and social media no-nos.

No-no Number One

Do not link your blog with social media. What I mean by that is you don’t want your blog o send a notification of your newest blog post to Facebook or Twitter or any other social network. On the surface it seems that would be a great shortcut for those (almost all of us) who find ourselves in a constant time crush. But it’s not.

Here’s why:

You run the risk of spamming your friends and followers. Computers make mistakes, and especially if you have Facebook and Twitter linked, you can get repeat messages. This is unintentional spamming.
People today are smart, savvy and cynical. We can tell when something posted on social media is computer generated and we won’t bite. So you’re not getting any traffic this way.
Finally, you need to control the way your social media updates go out and how they’re worded. Different platforms may need slightly different wording. You also want the opportunity to add relevant hashtags and mentions.