WebRev Blog

Social networking successfully takes a little finesse.  On one hand, you want to be active, but on the other, you don't want to over-do it, and spam your friends.  Users on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have plenty of options to block, delete, or "hide" you and your updates, and many of them will do it in a heartbeat, if you annoy them.  Time is precious, and the relative anonymity of online interaction gives your "friends" the freedom to ignore you in ways they might not in person.  So, here are a few ways to lose your friends online.

Ask for money, or try to sell them something. Think about it - Do you like it when your friends do this to you? Be honest. This applies to fund-raising efforts, too. If people are looking for places to unload money, all they need to do is answer their home phone and talk to the telemarketers - they don't need to log in to Facebook and find out what you're raising money for now.

Treat your "status updates" like they are your personal online journal.  I know this is going to be painful for some folks to hear, but no one cares how you're feeling today.  Yes, we know we should care, but we just don't. Sorry.  Stream-of-consciousness journals are great, and can be very therapeutic, but there are better places to keep them than on Twitter. 

Bore everyone with your politics.  If you're a political activist, you'll definitely want to consider keeping an entirely different account for your online political activity from the one you use to keep in touch with your personal or business friends.  Most people are only interested in politics the day before the election, and when you happen to touch on their pet issue.  The rest of the time, they would rather talk about something else most of the time - especially if they happen to disagree with you.  This also applies to starting arguments with people about politics - particularly on their own walls.

Send out several game, group, page, or application invites a day.  This gets old.  And sometimes these things aren't even secure, which REALLY annoys people. 

Also see Mashable: 5 Reasons Your Online Chat Pals May Block You

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. 
 

This week, we have been discussing Blogging Law and Etiquette.  Monday, we reviewed "Fair Use" laws, and yesterday, we talked about what is permissible to copy, with and without attribution.  Now, let's discuss what actions and behaviors the other bloggers are expecting of us, and what we need to do to be good blogging neighbors.

Blogging without a Blog's Barbara Swafford, who refers to blogging etiquette as the "unwritten rules" of blogging, suggests writing original articles, and not posting until you actually have something to write:

"Putting a new spin on a subject is one thing, but downright copying someone else’s ideas is not right."

 

Barbara has 13 other "unwritten rules," for bloggers, many of which are suggestions for appropriately using the comment sections of your blog and other blogs.  Be sure to check it out, here, and also take a look at the comment section on that post for great commentary.

Suite101's Zona Marie Tan has 16 general dos and don'ts of the blogosphere, for bloggers, commenters and both.  She emphasizes the importance of expressing an opinion respectfully, and properly attributing sources.  She also mentions hotlinking:

"Don’t steal bandwidth. If you are going to use an image off a blog, save it on to your own image hosting site. It’s rude to copy the image source and link it directly to your own blog." 

BloggingTips' Deborah Ng writes, "The rules are quite simple," recounting an unpleasant blogging experience she had and how it could have been prevented. Among her suggestions, she provides these words of wisdom:

"Don’t forget, everything you write is on display for the world to see. If you don’t want to the world knowing something, don’t post it. Many employers now Google potential employees. If you’re showing off your lingerie or ranting about your previous boss, these won’t bode well in your favor."

CyberJournalist offers A Bloggers' Code of Ethics, advocating for honesty, fairness, respect, and accountability in blogging.  Part of being accountable, this poster writes, is the committment to:

"Admit mistakes and correct them promptly."

Other than correcting obvious typos and formatting errors, it is always better to amend blog posts with an "updated" or "corrected," (or similar notation).  Trying to correct mistakes or regrets by covering them up can easily be discovered in the search engine cache, and will harm the integrity and reputation of the blogger.

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is a trainer and tech writer in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. Her weakness is the mocha frappuccino.