At Granny's knee

Here are some interesting thoughts I found and thought were worth sharing:

Social Media - Social Etiquette the old fashioned way, what can we learn from the manners our Grandparents lived by...?

1. Mind your manners. Social media is still social. Even though we are interacting in a virtual space, the same traditional social rules, laws, and faux pas still apply. If you act like a jerk, don’t expect many friends.
2. Tuck in your shirt. How you present yourself is just as important in the virtual world as it is in the real world. Make sure you are always aware of how you appear to others.
3. Send a thank you card. People still appreciate being appreciated. It really doesn’t take much to convert an acquaintance to a friend, which will offer exponentially more value. A simple thank you, or any genuinely human interaction of gratitude goes a long way towards this goal.
4. Keep your elbows off the table. Acting respectfully in front of others proves that you value them, which will usually make them value you more. And in social media, it’s all about value.
5. Turn your music down. Don’t contribute to the noise. Listen to whatever you want in your own personal space, but when your personal preferences start to become a distraction to others, people will tune you out.
6. Finish what you started. Any way you look at it, engagement is a commitment. When you make an effort to become part of a community, it’s not only up to you when or how often you interact with other members. If you put yourself out there as a friend, be prepared to be there when people reach out to you.
7. Finish your vegetables. There are some aspects of social media that aren’t sexy. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t important to your growth and health. Make sure you are keeping up with the essentials, and not just chasing that buzz you get from a social sugar high.
8. Whatever happened to a good old fashioned…? Sometimes all these new gadgets and thingamabobs aren’t as important or effective as we make them out to be. Sometimes a good old fashioned email, phone call, or even in person “get-together” can accomplish things that social media can’t.
9. A man is only as good as his word. The currency of social media is trust (or social capital). And if people can’t trust you, you have no value to them.
10. Think twice before you speak. You can always say something, but you can never take it back. Especially in social media where everything you say can be heard by anyone, forever, there are just too many “finites” to not reconsider everything you say before you say it.

Nothing new under the Sun

So, Twitter love it or hate it, the micro-blogging site looks like it is here to stay. But in that very sentence is evidence of why many people, usually people over 40 who have never actually been near it, 'hate it'.

Any new club likes to have its own secret language which makes it members feel important part of their own society, set apart from everyone else. Trouble is if you are not part of the clique the secret language makes you feel left out, alienated. The non-cliquees then snipe at the club they do not belong to and that is exactly what has happenned with Twitter, I have lost count of the number of times I heard people attack it saying things like "I've no desire to see what people had for breakfast or when their last bowel movement was!"

I suspect that will be the normal part of the life-cycle of any new form of communication. When mobile phones first came into use they were dismissed by the many as playthings of the idiot rich now they are ubiquitous!

Anyway it looks like Twitter is here to stay, for a while at least, so we had better get used to it and, if you like me work in the communication business, work out how to harness its undoubted 'cut through to the committed' strengths to engage audiences more effectively.

This article is a good starter for ten!

Enough said: