Social Media Networking and Blogging: The New Party Line?
Do you remember hearing about how telephones used to all be on Party Lines? The way it worked was that you had a specific ring pattern assigned to you and when the ring matched your pattern, the call was for you. Your neighbors shared the telephone line with you, but they had a different ring pattern.
However, curiosity would get the best of most folks, and even when the ring wasn't theirs, people would still pick up the phone and listen in! Sometimes the listener would get caught, and sometimes, they'd get a real good ear full! LOL.
If you needed to make a call, you'd have to pick up the phone and listen to be sure that there wasn't any one else on the phone before you made your call. Of course, when you made your call, you do it by cranking a handle on the phone that would ring up the operator, and she would put your call thru for you. Oh, and also listen in on your call, too.
Fifty or Sixty Years Later
Today, people are blogging and on social media website, everyone together. And we're finding that many of the manners required for getting along with others on today's "party line," still follow the Golden Rules of communication with others. Today's "party lines" are interactive platforms like Twitter, where you get instant response. And Blogs, where communication is a bit different in that it takes a little longer to get feedback from others.
New Rules? Or S-O-S?
Do we need new rules, or is it S-O-S (same old stuff)? With the old telephone party lines, and the rules they used, you weren't supposed to interject yourself into another's conversation. Today, interacting on Twitter, you are supposed to interject. You read, instead of listen, you think before you write, and in today's case, you need to add value. The same is true with blogging. Are these new rules or S-O-S?
What to add?
Value! If you can't add value, post a link back to the writer's blog. And when you want to post a blog, what do you post? Well, what's on your mind? What do you care about? What's your business, how it's doing, what's going on with it?
Here are a couple of Don'ts to keep in mind:
- Don't post on subjects you don't know or don't care about.
- Don't sell to people, get to know them. It's a social media.
- Don't write down to them, don't write over their heads. Remember who your readers are.
- Don't attack the writer. This is a social site, be social, just like at a party.
- Don't use another's words...not without giving proper credit!
- Don't post as a response, "Thanks, great post." If you don'thave anything to say, move along, or leave a link to it on your blog.
- Don't leave a response and then not check back to see if the conversation was continued. Check back, it's only conversation if there's two sides to it.
So, what do you think? What Don'ts would you add? What are your Golden Rules for today's social media and blogging web sites? And if you remember the old party lines, leave your experience here for all of us to enjoy!
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