… they are quoted hundreds of times a day on Twitter.
For the record, I like a motivational quote as much as the next gal. The targeted quote used to introduce an article or chapter can be informational and inspirational, but thousands of quotes a day on Twitter are just Internet fodder.
Successful social media aficionados have to post and tweet many times a day even if they have nothing of consequence to say. Right? No. You can reach your desired audience with interesting and beneficial information while maintaining your decorum. Got to use a quote here – “Less is more” - Robert Browning
Etiquette in the virtual space has the same rules as in the physical space. You would never spam someone at a dinner party and if you did you wouldn’t be invited again. Before jumping into your sales pitch, you’d take time to get to know the person and establish rapport. Before sending endless correspondence, you’d ask permission and if declined you would happily respect the request.
Online doesn’t mean anonymous. In fact, your local online community is a just that – a community. Although it’s larger, it still has the same expectation of etiquette, manners and acceptable behavior as any community. You are expected to be polite in person and online.
Facebook and other online social sites give us the opportunity to have more friends than ever before. That’s because we can more easily keep up with the activities that make us friends. It is estimated that before social media, we had an average of 150 friends. With social media, that average is up around 700. But we still expect kindness, politeness and courtesy from our friends. I like Aliza Sherman’s 10 Golden Rules of Social Media as a guide to using the online communities. Regardless of the media, we are people communicating with people.
As the social media and marketing experts (that’s all of us) decide what is an effective online strategy and as our expectations of social media as a marketing tool are redefined, we should remember what our mothers taught us -
“If you can’t say something that’s not spam, don’t say anything”
“There is no substitute for good manners”
“Silence is golden”
and “Don’t forget the Golden Rule.”
Until next time … shhhhh.
My journey has taken me many places I never imagined - from a family driving school business, to a dairy farm, to an engineering degree, to parenting two teenage girls. My first position after completing my electrical engineering degree was at Commonwealth Edison in transmission line design. After returning to Atlanta, I accepted a temporary position as a support engineer at Advanced Control Systems. It was a 3-month contract that lasted 10 years and I was promoted to department manager at ACS.. Now at LAN Systems, I still devote myself to providing support without compromise. My goal is to make LAN Systems known to all as the best IT Solutions and Service provider in the metro Atlanta area. Still committed to providing exceptional support that serves the needs of the people that use technology, I work with our engineers to improve their problem solving and interpersonal skills. In addition to my responsibilities with LAN Systems, I volunteer with several non-profits that serve the electric utility industry and introduce engineering as a career to young people.Technology is almost as awesome as people and look forward to exploring many “technology for the people” topics at AtlantaSmall.biz.
