Okay ladies, we are on to some premium social media education today. Who is in?
We all know the world has gone digital right? Social media came on board and boom, everyone is on social media. Okay let’s scratch the everyone part, that is an exaggeration. The people you most likely want in your circle are on social media.
If like me, you are really not about that ‘hard’ life, meaning you need all the help you can get in decoding social nuances especially social media nuances, and consequently, skipping a truck load of avoidable mistakes, then this is for you. See below 6 social media etiquette/hack that will help your digital interactions greatly.
I Use the same profile picture and bio across all your platforms. It validates the credibility of your digital presence. Do not use a raunchy picture as a profile picture. That bears repetition: do not use a raunchy profile picture. Similarly, ensure there is an offline consistence with your online profile summary. Your bio should describe who you are and not who you were. We all evolve, so re tweak your bio as you evolve.
II Do not beg for things on social media. Of course giveaways are absolutely cool but to go on someone’s page demanding for money is an outright No
III Screen the people you follow and prune your following list frequently. The people you follow on social media, says a lot about you. Now, what is utterly interesting about this point is, the people you want to be noticed by will most likely screen your ‘following’ list second to flipping through the content you have on your page.
IV Be careful, how you engage on social media. People are watching- those that matter and those you think do not matter. As a matter of dignity, do not leave spiteful comments on pages and blogs. If you must disagree with an opinion, do it without name calling and arguments.
V As a social precaution, do not send just ‘Hello’ to someone you are just meeting. It is unacceptable. For instance, you got this person’s contact through someone else and you need a service or you have a request. Please, do not send just Hello. Instead, start with a mild greeting, accompany it with courtesies depending on the person you are texting to and then state your reason for reaching out. All these must be in one message. Do not send them individually awaiting a response for each text.
It is extremely important, you learn how not to waste people’s time. It is a fast paced world out there, people have varying commitments to respond to. Help them, by not wasting their time. When you send your messages at once, you are telling the other party, I value your time and I understand that the time spent answering my messages can be used for something else.
VI That a person’s online status reads ‘active’ doesn’t mean they want to talk to you. This is very important especially when the said person is someone you look up to. Do not interpret an ‘active’ online status to mean they are available to talk at that time. People could be active online for a million and one reasons that has nothing to do with chatting or texting. Also do well to check the time before proceeding to send a message. For business relationships, any message past close of business, should be moved to the next day.
This post was originally published on A D E R I N S O L A To read the extended version, click here
