In a world of artificial communications, people are searching for an authentic conversation. Brands who don’t invest the time to provide this to their audience are missing out. I have a few social media pet peeves, but my biggest by far is automation between Facebook and Twitter.

Today I saw a tweet advertising the fact that that the poster was on Twitter. I won’t name and shame the culprit, but take a look at this.

If you want to maintain any sort of credibility on Facebook and Twitter, do NOT link the two. Just because Twitter makes it easy to do, doesn’t mean you should.

1. It’s Irrelevant. Often if someone likes you on Facebook, they will also follow you Twitter and they expect a different experience on each platform. Constant regurgitation of the same content will make them jump ship. Think about it. Do you want to see the same thing everywhere you go online?

2. Choice. When you link your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you have no choice in which posts are duplicated, so when you @ reply to someone on Twitter, that comment is also posted as an update on Facebook. where it makes no sense to your audience. Another huge downside to this is the use of hashtags, which currently have no place on Facebook.

3. Character Limitations. Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters. Facebook posts are not. I see so many brands posting updates to Twitter that make no sense because they are cut off halfway through.

4. Traffic. If you’re a brand who is linking all your Facebook and Twitter posts, you could be missing out on traffic. Wouldn’t you rather send people to your own website instead?

5. It’s just lazy. If you want people to engage and interact with you, don’t be so lazy as to assume that they don’t know what you’re doing. Have some respect for your audience.

Hopefully this post has convinced you to disconnect your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can do that here. Trust me, your fans will appreciate it.