So I’ve been on social media now for…. what?…. a few years. Up until now I think everyone has been pretty nice and respectful. But… there are a few rules that people seem to have forgotten and I think now is a good time to remind everyone what they are.
1. If I am following you on twitter it is because I like your company, product or what you have to say in general. I don’t mind if you don’t want to follow me back, but if you are going to comment on my posts and/or welcome me personally to your blog… follow me back, please. It is the respectful thing to do.
2. If you are a company and have a social media presence… please make sure whoever you have monitoring your fb page or twitter account is on top of it and responds to comments and questions. If you claim to care… then care.
3. There are a lot of us bloggers who review products and are happy to give you a little publicity (either in exchange for products or for money). We work hard at what we do - have a little respect and write us back to let us know if you are interested or not. And please don’t say you are interested and then ignore us. It’s rude… and you won’t be receiving any high praise for your customer service.
4. If you are going to ask people to guest post - please follow up in a timely manner if you are going to publish their post or not. Even a simple, “We received your post and will get back to you in a few weeks” is a nice gesture so we aren’t waiting by our emails to hear from you.
5. If you don’t like a guest post we’ve written… just say so. Then it’s done, it’s over and we won’t bother you again.
6. If you think you would be a good fit to guest post on MY blog… just ask. I would love it even if I haven’t sent you a personal, engraved invitation.
7. Don’t be mean. If you don’t like what I’ve written or tweeted… just walk away. That’s the beauty of social media. If you don’t want to follow me, you don’t have to.
8. Don’t assume that people you follow and love and think are your BFF’s will feel the same way about you. Just because you want to meet THEM doesn’t mean that they necessarily want to meet YOU. (Of course, I love and adore ALL my followers and would love to meet them ALL.)
9. Let’s not forget that when reading the written word, there is no reflection in tone or emotion. Therefore, what we might think of as a witty response or humorous joke, might not necessarily be taken as such. Let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt and not assume people are being mean and nasty.
10. Like IRL (in real life) some people are just mean bullies. You can always hit delete, unfollow or unlike if you aren’t feeling the love. Just do it and move one. There are too many good people out there to meet to waste time on the bad apples.
Feel free to add your RULES in the comments if I have forgotten any.
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