Social Media Etiquette

Social Media Etiquette-What Would Emily Post Say?

I have seen many mistakes when it comes to posting on the internet.  I have made some of these mistakes myself! Some of the posts that I have seen make me cringe! I often wonder what would Emily Post say?!!

Erik Qualman the founder of Socialnomics says, “We don’t have a choice whether we Do social media, the question is how well we Do it.” 

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   Desperation Breeds Contempt  

Maybe contempt is too harsh of a word, but we are trying to make a point!  These are a few synonyms found in the dictionary under contempt, “Unworthy of one's notice or disdain”.  Stop the self promotion!

If your wall streams are only of your glorious opportunity and how your readers need to join now, then you are going to turn away many a potential customer. 


Maybe your product or opportunity is the best thing since peanut butter! Let’s try to find other ways to promote it, not by posting continuously about it or about you.

One question for you to ponder, how do you feel when you walk into the car dealership, do you want to be the salesman or the relationship builder? 


Share information that others send out, give credit where credit is due. Give more than you receive back. Relax and enjoy the ride!

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Say it Correctly

Sometimes I find that I may be over thinking when it comes to posting, but I try to be careful regarding grammar, punctuation and content.  


Keep it simple and to the point, thankfully with the arrival of Twitter you have to be to the point, in just 140 characters! 


Make sure your links are working too. Always test your links before you send them. Again we are all being judged whether we like it or not! 

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Friend Requests Without Messages

When you are requesting to be “friends” with people you personally do not know on Facebook, you should always send a message with your request. 


Using common courtesy should be common sense! I am more apt to accept a friend request from someone that has a message attached than from those that have not.  


Most of the other social networks allow you to add people to your "Circles" or "Followers" without a request, as is with Google+ and Twitter. It is then up to you if you want to return the "Follow"!

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Sending Messages with Just Links

I receive many tweets with just links; I will not open those links.  


There is no guarantee that people will click on your link even with a message.  However, the odds are you will have more that will if you are including a message with it. 


Of course building trust is an important piece of this complicated puzzle.

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Scarcity vs. Abundance Mentality

How to handle competition can be difficult for some.  According to the Internet World Stats’ website there are currently over 2 billion internet users worldwide.   

If you are selling face cream, then there are a lot of potential faces out there that you could be targeting, even if you are just trying to sell on the web!  In other words there is enough for all of us to share in this abundant market. Just embrace your competitors and think abundantly!

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Using Automated Messages 

This can be debated either way.  There are some that will automatically stop following those that use this method.  Then there are those like myself that just grin and bear it! There are several twitter automation tools. 

Welcoming your new followers with a generic message is something that is a time saver.  However, once the message is out you should follow up with a personally written message.  I do not recommend posting a link to your opportunity in these messages. 

If you use these tools, you should still manage your tweets and how often they are tweeted. You need to avoid that the same welcome message is sent repeatedly to the same followers.

Remember we are here to build relationships.  If you are just using automated messages, this does not necessarily send that message.

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