Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

Social media is pretty much here to stay. We can all agree on that much. It also appears that Facebook is where you can find almost all of your friends any time of the day. You probably use it to connect with colleagues as well as that best friend from kindergarten that you never thought about until Facebook magically made it possible to keep in touch with everyone who ever waved at you.  Avoid the following five habits to ensure that those people stay your friends beyond the first day they accept your friend request.

1. Game Sharing

So you enjoy playing Facebook games. There’s no shame in that. Own it! However, under no circumstances should you post your stats on a daily or even weekly basis. Your friends really don’t care how great you are at Scrabble or how many zombies your plants may have zapped. Trust me on that. Otherwise, prepared to be known as the person with way too much time on his hands who is a little proud of that fact.

2. Posting Overly Inspirational Memes

Enough already with the inspirational quotes! Yes, when used sparingly and chosen carefully, wise words from a respected leader can inspire true inner change. Chances are, no single Facebook post is really that well-researched. Lay off the inspirational memes and quotes. Flooding your feed with them will just get people hitting “hide all posts” from you.

3. Being a Cryptic Drama Queen or King

You know what I mean. There are some people who thrive on posting a clearly unfinished funny facebookthought in the apparent hopes of people asking for more. Never post things like: “Wow, that was the most amazing news ever!” or “I’ve never been this disappointed in someone.” When you leave out the most important part of the story you’re sharing, that is just asking for attention, and it’s sure to annoy people left and right. Also, it will probably just prompt a lot of questions you probably shouldn’t answer in a public forum.

4. Overdoing It With the Selfies

Taking self-portraits on a daily basis is bad enough, but updating your Facebook profile photo to a new selfie every day is going off the deep end of social media etiquette. Kick that self-portrait timer on your camera to the curb. Don’t look back. Nobody really needs 500 pictures on Facebook, so take it easy and update your photo sparingly. Your friends will thank you.

5. Liking Your Own Posts

You are welcome to love yourself, but if you are on Facebook try not to ‘like’ yourself!  Think about it. When you “socially network with yourself” by clicking “like” on your own posts, that’s akin to laughing loudly at your own jokes at a party. People are sure to take notice of it, and they’ll go away from the experience with the impression that you are conceited or, at best, a bit lacking in tact.  If you are posting it, we can all assume that you like what you’re saying.  There’s no need to drive that point home.  After all, you don’t want to be seen high fiving yourself in public…!

Written by

John Romano is an entrepreneur, marketing strategist, Internet consultant, blogger and an expert in the technical, conceptual, and content development of online startups. He is the founder of several ecommerce sites and has helped multiple companies launch successful online businesses.

22 comments

  1. Sam

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    Thanks for saying this, especially about the selfies. I think overdoing it in that area can make a poor impression.

    Another issue with changing your profile picture too often is that people can lose track of you; I know that I start to recognize certain profile pics and will scan through my friends feed looking for posts by certain people, but I can miss people’s posts if I don’t recognize the profile pic. Wait until you have a really great pic that you want to use for a long time, and then change your profile photo!

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      Yes, I always wonder how much time those people spend looking at themselves in the mirror every day…! :)

  2. Laura

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    As a fan of a certain Facebook game (Candy Crush Saga anyone???), I have been careful to adjust my settings so that my friends aren’t inundated with updates about my progress (or lack thereof) with the game. I also make sure that I only send game-related requests to friends who I know are playing the game. Over time, most Facebook apps have made it easier to be more selective in sending requests rather than blanketing all your friends with requests, but I always take a moment to double-check because the default is usually some kind of “select all” to contact everyone.

  3. sarah

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    Selfies are getting out of hand, especially with my friends! A few are good but you have to know when to stop. I noticed that a lot of them include the poutty lips, is that called duck lips? It’s even worse when a guy is doing it! :/

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      Ahahahaha… I know a few guys in Italy that always pose with FISH lips or whatever they are called! It makes me wonder, aren’t they embarrassed of posting such photos????!!!!

  4. Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    I have to admit it that I sometimes get a kick out of it when someone likes their own post. I mean, not EVERY post, but now and then, I find it amusing (in a good way). Of course, the practical part of me says, “Well, I know you ‘like’ this or you wouldn’t be posting it…” I think someone liking their posts routinely or liking their posts in some effort at seriousness doesn’t make sense, though. I think a self-like has to either have a bit of wink implied or be something very unusual (if your grandma turns 100 and you post about it on Facebook, I think it’s OK to like that post, too).

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      Mandy, I agree with you. In some occasions it is ok to ‘like’ your own post to give it an extra exclamation point that it is a truly special post, and this is especially true if you are posting a photo or a quote from another person.

  5. danny

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    I think these are many of the reasons I like Twitter more, but even that is starting to get over-used and annoying. I heard that Facebook is making some major changes soon, does anyone here have any information about them?

  6. thom

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    So that’s what it’s called, being cryptic! It drives me crazy, are they wanting someone to ask them about it or are they just not wanting to talk about it in the first place? I think they are just begging for attention and the ones that do that too much, I just skip over.

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      I probably would consider those the most annoying posts!

  7. efpierce

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    Game sharing is the worst!! Stop trying to share your games with me, I don’t want to play. Does anyone have any advice on how to say that nicer?

  8. matt n.

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    I didn’t realize that liking my own posts was a problem but now that you mention it, I guess it is kind of silly. I wonder how many people I have put off with that practice.

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      It is not a problem. You can post pictures of your dad and then emphasize how much you like him by ‘liking’ it as well. But, if you write a message and then ‘like it’… it’s a bit overdoing it (giving the impression that you are craving to increase that ‘like’ count!).

  9. quince

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    Yes, the memes have to stop. Facebook is a “social” network, not an inspirational quote library. I have to admit that some of them are good, but others are just plain weird.

  10. william wysocki

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    What really bothers me is all of the overly religious stuff people post on Facebook. I asked a friend of mine about it and they said that they didn’t want to talk about it face to face so they post things on Facebook about it. It’ still face to face if you think about it that way!

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      AMEN! :)

  11. Nastya

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    I would ad:
    6. Stop with the mundane updates. “Just washed my hair, now I have to change the cat’s litter box.” Please oh please – if there’s nothing more exciting, inspirational, electrifying or interesting going on in your life – just stay off Facebook until something happens in your life worth letting us know about.

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      Nastya, very funny! Yes, I think some people need a diary more than facebook! :)

  12. Brock

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    Perhaps a little off topic here – but perhaps not as it still related to Facebook. A lot of people, groups, organizations, businesses, and political parties are using Facebook for messaging. Thing is these groups will often filter negative commentary on their Facebook posts. Speaks to another of your recent posts too John – don’t you think these groups are doing themselves a disservice? They may think they’re on top of the world when in actuality they are just cutting out the bad news that they need to hear. I think there’s a good book on this subject – THE FILTER BUBBLE by Eli Pariser. Been meaning to read it, but haven’t done so yet.

  13. Nattie

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    We’re adding here? My #6 would be:
    6. Sharing photos of people nobody but you the sharer knows, especially without an introduction. Right now I’m staring at some guy in a suit a Facebook “friend” shared with me. He’s not famous. This friend doesn’t tell who this is. Is it an uncle? A cousin? Her insurance salesman? I don’t know. Likely I don’t care. But at least tell me why I am supposed to care. Did you design his suit? I don’t know …. Just give me something to work with here.

  14. jon terns

    Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

    Facebook literally drives me nuts. The fact that it has become a useful business tool is the only reason I still use it.

    • Stop! 5 Facebook Practices That Drive Your Friends Crazy

      Yes Jon, I feel the same way. I rarely use it as it is becoming “Ego Book”…the selfies, the self-proclaimed experts in every topic, etc… But again, sometimes in business we do what we have to do… even if we don’t like it so much!

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