While we named these platforms The Big 3 in the previous article, they can be very annoying at times but that does not seem to hinder their popularity. We are going to go through some of the 'rules' & annoying aspects when applying a social media strategy using Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. LinkedIn needs a whole article to itself. If there are any we missed, don't be a stranger & get in touch! While this is arguably one of the most popular social platforms, dealing with so many users can lead to a lot of issues. This is one of the main platforms we use for clients so we are well versed in the annoyances. Facebook has a help center option allowing you to contact them, however, as everything has been automated it can be near on impossible to get an actual answer to your questions. To ensure you are getting the most out of Facebook you have to keep up to date with the changes in their algorithms. This means that what worked for your last month may not be work next month. For example, Facebook recently changed the size of images used for posting articles. This may seem minor but if you are posting from your own blog you may need to adjust the feature image size on all articles in order for them to fit correctly.

There are some parts of Twitter that we find constantly frustrating. The option to add a poll to your tweet for example. This in itself is a great idea, however, we have had the issue of only being able to add to answers to the poll. Twitter displays the option to add numerous answers but this quite often does not work. Also, if you want to pay for your ads, you better have some patience as setting up the payment system is also buggy & can just not work for no reason at all. Be prepared for a couple of failed attempts. Finally, go easy on following other people. Best case scenario is that you have more followers than you are following. Just something to bear in mind. Do not get carried away with retweeting. The Twitter community does not respond well to this. It can clog up your newsfeed & make it appear as if you are not a 'real' person.

Instagram can be irritating in many ways. It tends to penalize you for sharing too many single pictures which is why the portfolio style of posting numerous pictures at once has become so popular.Instragram users can be ruthless & will unfollow you for this. For many of you that use multiple platforms, you may want to use a scheduling tool. It is understandable. But, not with instagram. It is messy & will often not work. It is also a predominantly mobile-based platform so keep that in mind when you are posting. Over "hashtagging" has become the latest trend that you can be penalized for. According to research, 4 is the maximum! Users of Instagram seem to be more judgemental, as according to Vogue, if you don't have more than 11 likes on your picture then it has got to go! We do not agree with this mindset at all. These are just some of the 'annoying things' we have found with dealing with the Big 3.