Social Media Ettiquette

[InsightsDigital]

What is your social media ettiquette?

My rules is that I use LinkedIn for business and professional colleagues. I only accept invites from people I either met in person and/or I have interacted with.

Facebook for friends and professional associates so I can keep up with relevant news feed. Twitter for almost everyone except blatant spammers.

I saw this interesting one:
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/09/dear-groundswell-your-business-social-netiquette-questions.html

[Dani]

The confusion as to what to use for what is one of the main reasons why I've been so late getting into the social media game. The various choices became too overwhelming that I eventually just gave up and didn't use anything.

For example, if I want to tell the world what I'm eating for breakfast (which is apparently super important in the world of social networks) am I supposed to post it to Facebook or Twitter?

[marksinclair]

I orginally got Facebook purely for the friends aspect, and was willing to accept anyone that invited me. Of course, this was before there were any businesses. You also had to go to a college and use a college e-mail so spamming wasn't really possible.

Right now, I keep it to friends. I don't tell co workers about it.

On Twitter I'm the same as you. Anyone who follows me I follow them back unless they're constantly tweeting worthless things.

[MktgRob]

The confusion as to what to use for what is one of the main reasons why I've been so late getting into the social media game. The various choices became too overwhelming that I eventually just gave up and didn't use anything.

For example, if I want to tell the world what I'm eating for breakfast (which is apparently super important in the world of social networks) am I supposed to post it to Facebook or Twitter?

The confusion you felt is one of the main stumbling blocks consultants often have when introducing a client to social media, especially clients who are not that web savvy to begin with. It is one of the reasons I make sure that I understand a clients business model, target markets and the basic characteristics of their clients. This helps me to narrow down the choices and drive them to what is most beneficial to them.

[InsightsDigital]

Thanks CSCGal for bringing up the breakfast issue. I see this most prevalent in Twitter than in Facebook but not that there are multiple tools that allows simultaneous posting across social networks, the lines of differentiating "personalities" have blurred. My whole question is,"What is the social value of informing to the whole world that the user is eating?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHAZt-Exuaw&feature=channel

[MktgRob]

Thanks CSCGal for bringing up the breakfast issue. I see this most prevalent in Twitter than in Facebook but not that there are multiple tools that allows simultaneous posting across social networks, the lines of differentiating "personalities" have blurred. My whole question is,"What is the social value of informing to the whole world that the user is eating?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHAZt-Exuaw&feature=channel

The social value is zero unless you are a celebrity who is promoting a particular breakfast cereal.

What is sad about those types of updates (I had this for breakfast, I am reading this paper, I am looking out the window, etc) is that they remind me of this weird story from about 10 years ago. It seems there was some guy living in the Pacific Northwest and he kept a running diary that he updated every 10 minutes about every minute detail in his life (bathroom breaks, broken shoelaces, quantity of junk mail, etc). At the time of the story his diary was contained in over 2,000 marble-cover notebooks. The basic gist of the story is that the guy was some odd, socially awkward, misfit. So when I see someone tweet that they are eating cheerios in their bathrobe while watching the rain fall I think of the guy with the 2,000 notebooks and I sign off, shut off the computer and go for a walk.