Imagine Your Reality

While social media technology continues to develop apace, what is becoming more important than the technology itself, is the behavior all of us engage in as we use social media. Almost from the beginning there has been expected protocol as well as ideas as to what people should or shouldn’t tweet about, but at the same time, for the most part, social networking is fairly unregulated when it comes to what people say and do. And in many ways this is a good thing, as such regulation would take away from the spirit of social networking. At the same time, social networking communities are self-policing to a degree, and this is made more helpful when you can indicate if someone is spamming you.

However an actual focus on successful social media behavior and what that means is something which is only now beginning to be focused on. Sure we have our social media strategies which explain how to use twitter or Facebook or other sites to get people interested in doing business with us, but there hasn’t been much focus on behavior. Successful social media behavior ultimately needs to look beyond the marketing and networking to the actual connection that social media enables.

What does it mean to follow someone? What issues arise when you unfollow someone? These aren’t questions, which are really asked, in part because its not something that is thought to be asked about. And ultimately by virtue of sheer numbers is not something that might be considered relevant. But as social networks evolve and as use of the technology become more sophisticated, questions of what constitutes successful social media behavior will need to be addressed.

Social media is more than technology. It’s behavior and connection, as well. It is people sharing their lives with each other, their needs, their problems, and everything else. We need to respect that even as we learn the technology.