Social Media Etiquette – Are Bad Manners Killing You Online?

Having Good Manners and Observing Proper Etiquette

The social media sites … Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Digg, etc. .. are where it’s all really happening now for all savvy online and internet marketers. You see it everywhere … “so and so made umpteem gazillion dollars in one day with just one tweet using Twitter.” People and businesses both, know that money, and lots of it, can and is being made using social networking sites. But what the majority of people DON’T understand is that there is first a proper etiquette and social acceptance, if you will, to first both be observed and put into practice. Putting it simply, you have to learn the etiquette and then mind your manners!

The simplest way to understand this is to pretend that all the people on all the social networking sites are all at just one big party. A party where people get together to relax, have fun, meet other new people, and “socialize” with each other through conversation, sharing thoughts and ideas, and perhaps group discussions like you would see at a big corner table at a happy hour somewhere after work hours. People just socializing and making new friends.

When you come onto these social networking sites, it’s just as if you are a stranger, coming in to join everyone at the big party. If you will look at it from this perspective, it’s easy to understand that you would, in our “party” scenario, naturally behave within certain socially accepted standards and interact with people using guidelines, protocols, and simple behaviors you’ve learned and used your whole life.

You Are Not Here to Promote or Pitch Your Opportunity – Put Down Your Sign!!

The last thing anyone wants is someone else promoting, pitching them or trying to sell them something. I personally delete close to 100 emails or more every day from my Junk Mail folder, all just crap from spammers trying to sell me everything from Rolex knock-offs to Viagra … or worse! Everyone today gets pitched and spammed to death, we see ads everywhere, online, on TV, in our own email inboxes … and we all hate it!

It’s unthinkable that you would meet a new person at a big party and immediately try to pitch them on your business or try to sell them something. This is not proper social etiquette and everyone at our “party” would be extrememly turned off with anyone who did this to them, wouldn’t you? You would be considered a jerk and everyone would avoid you!  It’s like asking a girl to sleep with you on the first date (well, ok, we’ll just say nice girls and leave it at that).  Also commonly called “The Handshake to Marriage Proposal.” It’s unheard of, it’s just not done.

Well guess what, that’s EXACTLY what the majority of people are doing on the social media sites today. As soon as they join, their neon sign goes ON and they immediately start promoting their business opportunity, product, or web site … to everyone! … and they think it’s OK! … and then they wonder why they get NO response! If you are new to or have been on the social networks for some time and this is you, stop doing this immediately! No one cares about your opportunity and/or product! Just STOP IT!

Meeting and Getting New Friends – Are You an Idiot?

If you wanted to meet, let’s say … a really hot guy or girl at our big party, would you just walk up to them, stand a few feet from their face, look at them and then not say a word? Of course you wouldn’t! They would think you’re an absolute idiot … or worse! You would say hello, introduce yourself, perhaps then open the conversation about someone or something you both may have in common, this being a polite and proper way to meet and perhaps acquire a new friend, or even date!

So why is it that when people now send or receive a New Friend Request on Facebook or a follow on Twitter, that 99.9% of the time the request has absolutely no greeting or message with it? Are you starting to understand now, get the drift here? It’s the same thing as someone walking right up to your face and then not saying a word to you. It’s dumb and really laughable when you think about it. One final thing you also must do here … post a picture of yourself to your social media profiles … you don’t want to attend the big party with NO face!

Use Good Manners, Observe Proper Etiquette, Enjoy the Party and Make Lots of Friends!

Networking with people on the social media sites works just like in our real physical world except the party is a LOT bigger with a LOT more people attending. (Starting to get it now?) Your purpose is to come in and have a good time, meet and enjoy new people, acquire new friends and build sincere and long lasting relationships with people. Find new people and develop relationships with those folks who share common interests, perhaps those that also have similar goals and dreams as you. Form a “tribe” of new friends from these kinds of people. This will take time, no question about it. By doing this however, the result will be that you will have people naturally interested in you in return, people who will like you and who then may or may not want to venture into any “deals” with you. But I think you will find that money and success, if that’s what you seek, will come a lot easier and flow to you naturally this way.

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