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things-to-change-in-social-mediaWe all have thought or said, “In an ideal world…” at least once in our lives. Oftentimes we know this optimal state can never be attained, but that doesn’t keep us from wanting and wishing it to be so.

There are so, SO many useful, fun and fantastic elements to social media, but time and again I find myself pondering what would make social media even better. Here are 3 things I wish I could change about social media.

  • That all social media platforms and online services would “play nice” As time has gone by, integrations between platforms and online tools have been both added and taken away. One recent example is the removal of Facebook from Tweetdeck (which is now owned by Twitter). One integration that I’d love to see would be the connection to Google+ Personal Profiles from social media dashboard tools. Right now, you can schedule and post to Google+ business pages from HootSuite and Sprout Social, but if you want those same capabilities for your personal Google+ profile, you need to use a Chrome add-on. “Playing nicely” has benefits for all involved. I know I’d be much more likely to share more often and on more platforms if it was easier for me to do so.
  • That social media could be paused Because life happens. And typically happens offline. The downside to social media’s “near real-time” quality is that the expectation for a quick response is equally as high.
  • That social media platforms would actively notify users regarding Terms of Service issues There are so many things I see on a daily basis that flat-out violate the Terms of Service and Promotional Guidelines for the major social media players. It could be a Google+ contest. It could be the purchasing of Likes or Followers. It definitely is the frequent use of Facebook contests that are in direct violation of its Promotional Guidelines. Using Facebook as an example…why not utilize one of the many sections of the Admin Panel (perhaps the one it uses to continually push its paid promotional products?) to alert fan page Admins of commonly-seen contest violations? I feel there’s definitely more that could be done by the social media platforms to notify users in a very non-technical and easy-to-understand way of some of these big pain points.

These above items make my personal top 3 list. If you had your druthers, what kinds of things would you change about social media?