The Etiquette of Social Media

With all of the technology going on these days, I think I need to lay the laws of the "dos and don'ts" of social media and there are many of them. My good girlfriend founded the Social Media of Madison, of which I am on the board. As an ever-growing phenomenon, let's take a look here.

1)As mentioned previously, one thing that I don't agree with is using a photo of your child as your profile picture on facebook. That is not you. That's your kid.

2) It is completely inappropriate to "friend" clients on facebook. Any professional relationships you have should not see photos that your friends tag of you at a dance club with a budlight in hand. Or a status update of your "announcement" that you hate your boss or hate your competitor. That is incredibly tacky and classless. (I suppose it is ok if you have them as a "friend" on a privacy setting....)

3) Do not make cryptic tweets/status updates on facebook. People who do that are craving attention. Updates such as, "Horrible news. What am I going to do?" doesn't disclose your update. It discloses that you want people to become immersed with your secret. Lame. (Now, if you post a picture of a baby and your update is "exciting day," we can take a wild guess...)

4) What is this whole thing about trying to gain 797 friends? I am working hard all of the time to minimize everything in my life. Including my friend list. Unless we are truly friends, I don't need to be friends with you. I already got rid of about sixty-five people. I am not trying to be mean. I just find it uneccesary and pointless. If I am not looking at your photos/blog/updates, you probably aren't looking at this.

5) Phantom blog readers. I know you're reading this. You tell me you are. But you don't comment. And then you send me an e-mail. A blog's comments section is for that. Your comments. Not my inbox in my gmail account.

6) People who use their work e-mail for all of their e-mail. Talk about abusing your time at work.

Get the hint? Now use in out in cyber world.

Peace.