Imagine Your Reality

In my previous post, I wrote about bad social media behavior and provided some examples of what that is. In this post we’ll focus on good social media behavior. Good social media behavior is behavior that respects and understands the social norms that are at play within social media sites. Some good social media behavior can also occur if people bend the rules some. Not surprisingly, good social media behavior is something that has only begun to be discussed recently, and social media has been used in the typical manner that occurs when people discover new technology: namely people test technology out to see what it can do, regardless of whether the technology should be used that way. Now that we are moving past that phase, questions of social media behavior are occurring. Our use of the technology is becoming more refined.

So what are some good social media behaviors? The following is a list of social media behaviors that I would qualify as good behaviors. Feel free to comment and add your own to the list.

Write a personalized invitation to people you want to connect with. Providing context is helpful, so indicate where you met the person and mention a point s/he made during your discussion that you liked. Also if you get an invitation to connect, its good behavior to write a personalized response back to the person. Remember that you are building relationships. Invitations, whether you send them or they are sent to you are opportunities to start relationships. Personalizing your response is a good way to start building that relationship.

Comment on what other people are doing and/or retweet. Don’t just retweet a mention of yourself from someone else. Retweet what other people are writing about. Also make an effort to comment on what other people are doing. Making that extra effort can help you build stronger relationships and find ways to help those people. And who doesn’t want some help if they need it?

If someone comments on a blog post or an article, write a response. This shows you’ve acknowledged the comment, but it also allows you build that relationships and hopefully gets the person to comment again on other entries. If you don’t respond people won’t feel inclined to comment or even come back to your blog. So make the effort to respond.

Social bookmark websites and articles that aren’t your own. If you like an article, social bookmark it. That way you’ll be showing your appreciation to the people who wrote the article, while also having it on hand, if you want to read it again, or draw on it down the line.

Share information as opposed to advertising. A good blog post should share information as opposed to advertising. Write down your idea or share some information without making it a pitch. People can tell the difference pretty easily otherwise.

What are some other good social media behaviors that you use? Share in the comments here.