Social media blogger Rahsheen Porter recently wrote a great piece about Ping.fm, a useful web service that lets you send the same message out to a number of social media services (”cross-posting“). In his insightful post, he details a complex method of ensuring that the right social networks receive the correct messages, providing the biggest bang for the buck.
Rahsheen’s article illuminates the good that cross-posting services can do for both creator and consumer alike, but my take on Ping.fm and similar services is considerably more pessimistic. It’s my belief that the duplication that results from cross-posting can negatively impact the social media consumption habits of others.
Why cross-posting is good
Rahsheen’s article underlines one of the main benefits to cross-posting. He writes:
This is all about increasing my social networking influence. I want to interact with a diverse selection of people because I have diverse interests. Ping.fm allows me to keep all these different groups updated with whatever is going on with me. I can share new music I create, content I’ve written, whatever I choose and I can share it across multiple social networks. I want to learn from others and get their feedback on what I’m doing.
However, there seems to be a bit of a contradiction here in that “increasing social networking influence” (that is, broadcasting) is a considerably different goal from learning from others and getting feedback (conversation). In fact, I think the confusion here is representative of the confusion that arises from cross-posting in general. Fortunately, Rahsheen is very thoughtful when it comes to cross-posting and goes out of his way to make sure he uses the tool appropriately, but others are not as considerate.
Why cross-posting is evil
As far as I’m concerned, the negatives of cross-posting greatly outweigh the benefits. Here are a few reasons why cross-posting negatively impacts your followers:
- They don’t know which service you’re most likely to check for responses on. If someone replies to your comment on Pownce and you never check Pownce for replies, you’re missing out on a potentially valuable comment and wasting your follower’s time.
- Different communities warrant different content. What’s appropriate, relevant, or interesting to one group of people will almost surely be less meaningful to another. Cross-posting can mindlessly eliminate a necessary distinction between communities.
- Different communities support different standards. Twitter’s at sign (@) is invaluable at directing Tweets. When these messages are cross-posted to a service like Pownce, as shown above, they lose all meaningfulness. Users have to expend mental processing power to remove them from the picture. Pownce, on the other hand, has no character limit, so only cross-posting 140 or fewer character messages to Pownce doesn’t take advantage of the nuances of the service.
- Cross-posting services are often buggy or unstable. Many services such as Ping.fm have the habit of posting the same message to one network more than one time. Whether this is the fault of the network or the cross-posting client, this is one surefire way to infuriate those that care.
The irony is, by cross-posting, you alienate your most valuable readers: those that are so interested in you and what they have to say that they follow you on every service they can. Don’t let these devoted followers down by broadcasting your message two or three times in a row!
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Great article! After I did my post, I started noticing a lot of cross-posting abuse and I was actually going to do a follow-up on etiquette. Now there is no need
It’s very annoying to see people @’ing their Twitter followers on Identi.ca, for instance. It’s also frustrating to find that these people never respond, or respond on the wrong service.
Oh, and I’m glad you enjoyed my piece. It’s always good to know *someone* is paying attention
Thanks for reading, Rahsheen! You ought to do one on etiquette anyway– I think there’s plenty of room for more voices carrying a similar message.
That’s an interesting point you make about Identi.ca; it’s even worse when you don’t know if the source was a Tweet or a Dent!
(And you have a happy subscriber with me!)
I proudly use ping.fm almost every time I post to a Social site. However, the two sites I use most are Facebook and Plurk. And, the people I have as friends on both sites (for the most part) are completely different people. Facebookers are my IRL friends, Plurkers are my online friends.
So, in my situation, it makes life easier because I can send the same message to all the people I know.
Of course, to make things right, I should turn off my posting to Twitter and Pownce from ping.fm … since I rarely (if ever) check those sites but am consistently posting to them.
TJ, shame on you!
At least with Pownce you can set up e-mail notifications so that if someone replies to your Pownce, you can get back in touch with them. Man, drives me nuts when people create conversations and then never check in on them, but I think the height of that arrogance is when folks don’t even engage comments on their own blog! It’s always frustrating to piece together a long, thoughtful reply only to have no one interact with it.
Andy,
I’ve been using ping.fm for a few months now (wow it’s been that long) and I do agree with everything that you say and while I don’t use it very often it’s great for a status update aka one way channel than when your interested in a communication channel.
Ping.fm is the only way I ever update through Facebook or Plurk. Maybe I’ll come back to plurk at some point, but right now Twitter is about all I can handle.
Hi Andy,
I love the article… I personally use ping dot fm… but for replies refrain from using the service… i prefer to personally engage conversations…
as for my blog.. its a digg yard… and you will find a LOT of digg stories that interest me… so comments are out.. but yes etiquette does state that you should acknowledge at the least!
Thanks for the article..
With your permission, may I use this on my blog??
Thanks,
Partha
Great article, Andy!
I’m starting to remove people off my friends lists that do just this thing. It’s annoying and it completely goes against everything a social network should be.
If you’re using a service like that to post to multiple services, nobody gives a shit about what you’re writing because you obviously don’t give a shit about reading your “friends” posts.
Death to the cross-posters!
Hehe, I think we’re all agreeing on a common theme, Kyle, Partha, and Carolyn. The more I think about it, the less a travesty I consider sending a copy to Twitter; for instance, it’s a much bigger sin in my mind going from Twitter to Pownce than the other way around.
I wonder why that is, hmm.
(Partha, I sent you a Tweet!)
Put up with cross link
Partha Srinivasans last blog post..Cross-posting: saving time at the expense of others?