Streamlining a campaign is always a good move, right? Well, not in the case of automated posting services. Services like Ping.fm, take one message and post it to multiple social media sites.  However, the campaigns that employ these services are sacrificing their online brand to shave a couple minutes off their daily social media tasks.

Let’s examine why this is a bad idea.

Each social media site has its own unique language.  On Twitter using abbreviations is encouraged because 140 characters can go pretty quickly.  However, abbreviations are unnecessary on Facebook because your characters are not limited.  Also, Twitter users incorporate hashtags to help spread their message beyond their followers, but hashtags serve no purpose on Facebook.  So when these services include abbreviations or hashtags in a Facebook post it looks sloppy, exudes laziness, and gives an impersonal touch to the page.

Campaigns cannot always be expected to craft an exclusive message for each social media site.  However, taking the time to log-in and post a message tailored to that site is a necessity, whether it is the candidate or a member of their staff.

Many believe that “speed is king online,” but in this case the benefits of cutting ten or fifteen minutes a day off your workload doesn’t outweigh the importance of your online brand.

I’m excited to be joining the TechRepublican community.  It is truly an honor to contribute to a site that boasts the names of David All, Vince Harris, Todd Herman and several other online experts.

Chris Walling is the political editor at ProjectVirginia.com – “Where Politics Meets Social Media”