Rules for social media
January 5, 2010 by Lonny.
Techie info like this might seem out of place on omitneedless. After all, shouldn’t we endeavor to omit needless social media that just sucks up our time and gives little back?
It’s possible, however, that
- you are on Facebook anyway no matter your feelings about omitting needless distractions. I’m not going to change that.
- you might need to be on some social media networks for business.
- if you have to be on a social network, or are responsible for marketing something (yourself, your business, your employer’s business), you might as well add balance and focus to your efforts there.
With that in mind, I encourage you to go read Aliza Sherman’s post on Web Worker Daily entitled “Revisiting 10 Golden Rules of Social Media“.
She took her simple 10 rules and revamped them to five rules. If I had obeyed those five rules from Day One in Social Media, I’d be better off.
The extremes with many people are either to avoid all social media and networking (i.e. “off the grid”), or to be fully 24/7 a twitter-head and have 900 friends on Facebook. The healthy balance is found in Aliza’s rules which allow you to participate in a helpful and community-minded way.
Take for example Aliza’s Rule #2:
Add Value. The term “value” is subjective, but once you have truly listened, you will be able to discern with relative certainty what is valuable to any given conversation or community. Can you add value to the conversation, not just an empty voice? Can you be a resource? A supporter? A cheerleader? An organizer? What is your social media value proposition?
You can’t have 900 real friends or be off the grid if you think of others in this way. In this way, Aliza is promoting the best Golden Rule of all: Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Whether that’s on a internet website or in person, her rules are solid guidelines for reflection. Bookmark them before you fire off that next forum post.
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