SOCIAL MEDIA : LOOSE LIPS AND SINKING SHIPS

The Internet has become an even greater melting pot. Online and offline lives are blurred. Many people seem to live their lives online and communicate with a world of people they may never have met. Every detail of their lives is shared in Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, WordPress, Digg, Reddit…and of course email.

There are some very positive benefits to this incredible online world, I’m the first to admit it. I have clients around the US with whom I’ve developed relationships using purely online methods that I wouldn’t have dreamed of a few years ago. I can share information so easily, click-click-done.

But the ease of communication has blurred the lines between business and personal for many people. I’ve written about this subject a couple of times in the past (links below), but for the uninitiated, here goes:

Mixing Identities

I see it all the time. I communicate professionally with someone and the next thing I know they’re sending me a “friend” request on Facebook, or a network link on LinkedIn. If they want to connect with my professional identity, I’m alright with that and happy to share, but sorry if you want to be my “friend” on a personal level. Let’s have a few dates first…?

Many people don’t separate their personal and professional identities and this can have serious repercussions. I’ve received emails from people I barely know with everything from “please forward this message of goodwill to 10 people…” to petitions, rants about anything, links to cute videos, jokes…you name it.

Opening the professional door to a business relationship does not give you the right to assume that people want to see or share in your personal life.

The Risks You Take

Your opinions and tastes might be different from those people to whom you are sending emails to or trying to connect with in a social media context. If you’re sharing purely professional information, opinion etc, then all well and good, but a lot of people don’t stop there.

Consider the reaction to someone who disagrees with something you send them. What if they’re offended? Could it be the end of a relationship? There are increasing numbers of stories in the press about social media “faux pas” that end up causing retractions and apologies, but in this world of instant communication, once it’s said, it’s very hard to unsay. If you’ve invited someone to be your online friend, do you want them knowing your friends and family too…or the fact that you “got totally wasted dude”?

One shudders to think of the legal ramifications, especially if there are license requirements that one might be expected to observe!

Separation of Church and State

If you’re sharing your personal life with your business colleagues, be prepared. As much as many of us would like to think that our “work” and “play” personalities are the same, or at least similar, they should be different, especially online. 

I call it the “separation of Church and State”. If you’ve not considered separating the two, please do so. You do need to watch what you say. As the World War II posters advertised “loose lips sink ships” and it’s very true.

Can you afford to take the risk?

 

Related articles:

• EMAIL FAUX PAS
• SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

OIL AND WATER: INSTANT GRATIFICATION AND MARKETING

In a world of instant gratification, instant messaging and instant coffee, some things take time; a day is still 24 hours long, the seasons (at least for now) come and go in rotation, and building a good reputation doesn’t happened overnight…though destroying it can, but that’s another post.

Especially in the online world, so many people seem to think that it’s all about flooding everyone with tons of information and hoping some of it will stick. Unfortunately, in some cases it seems to work and this encourages others to try the same.

Over 90 percent of email is spam. That’s an amazing amount; 9 out 10. Much of this unwanted garbage is “marketing”, whether for a male “enhancing” pill, someone who wants to pass $2,000,000 through your bank account (have you noticed that the dollar amounts seem to have dropped lately), or people wanting to tell you how to get out of debt.

Look at social media. The “social” part of that term implies interaction and communication. Alas, from Twitter to Facebook, blogging and beyond, the social media world is becoming like the email one, lots of people shouting their message and few listening.

Television, door-to-door salespeople, various causes outside well-know stores, advertisements, banners, signs, business cards…they’re all one-way. YOU MUST BUY / GIVE / USE. If you’re lucky you may hear the “why”.

In my humble opinion, and I don’t profess to be an expert, this isn’t marketing. In my (still humble) opinion, marketing is about having a product or service (or whatever) and informing people about it.

But hang on, isn’t that what everyone is doing?

To some degree, but many seem to have lost the focus that the relationship is as important as the product. It seems to be more about the hit-and-run approach and on we go.

Perhaps I’m a little old-fashioned, but I’m not in the business of trying to ram my products down anyone’s throat. Much of my marketing effort is focused on working with and helping clients, expanding my network and giving.

Did he say “giving”?

Relationships are built on trust. Many first dates don’t start with a kiss, but if all went well, they might end with one….after people get to know each other just a little.

Marketing is no different. Perhaps getting to know me a little and being sincere might lead you to realized that I don’t need or want your product, but you know what, I might know someone who does…and you might learn something…

That is marketing.

Blackberry and Texting Etiquette

An increasingly large number of my clients are getting Blackberrys (or is it Blackberries…) and other texting devices. After all, it’s a tried-and-tested technology for those on the move. But speed and convenience seems to be leading to short replies that may be misinterpreted…

When your email is routed to your Blackberry and you want to reply, it’s relatively straightforward: type and send. However, the nature of the devices tends to mean that quick, one-liners are the norm. I often get these in reply, with a message footer “Sent from my Blackberry”. I know that a short and often abrupt-seeming reply is nothing more than that. Be careful, however, if you’re replying to a client or someone who may be a little more sensitive.

Interpretation of email and text messages can be very mixed. I, for one, am guilty of misunderstanding a sentence or two as mean something quite different than intended by the sender. The written messages don’t reflect the tone of the sender, so it’s prudent to take a moment and consider how the message may be interpreted.

Am I too concerned? Perhaps. But if someone sends you an email, for example “is this the best offer we can get” and you, caught up in a thousand other things, respond “yes” on your texting device, will your client think you’re being a little abrupt…even rude because they’re used to you explaining youself in “regular” email or on the phone? Will they understand BRT, LMAO or CUL8R? For those who would like to know more, here is a list of text abbreviations from Webopedia.

As technology moves forward and communication gets quicker, it’s easy to forget that what you meant to say and how it was perceived can be very easily blurred.

Here’s a Top 10 list of SMS etiquette tips from WirelessDevNt.com.

Don’t text and drive!

Dave

Texting a signal of wider trend (BBC).

Does convenience trump thoughtfulness?

Maybe it’s just the time of year or perhaps it’s the spell for rather chilly weather we’re having here in the “Valley of the Sun”, but (as you can tell from previous posts), I’ve been thinking much about electronic communication of late.

When email and instant messaging first debuted on what was then a fledgling Internet, there was some debate as to the social acceptance of these communication methods. Firing off an email is quicker and easier than writing or typing a letter. It’s also cheaper and timelier. More often than not, you can even tell whether it’s been received and read.

Yes the pervasion of these rapid forms of communication have, to some degree, added an air of casualness (is that even a word??) to discourse. What was once considered socially unacceptable has become the norm. By that I mean abbreviations, spelling, typos and grammar. This is a double-edges sword. E-communication has allowed the expansion of business and social networking like nothing before. Some would say that the removal of old fashioned “rules” is a necessary part of an evolution in how we communicate. Others would mourn the lowering of acceptable standards. I’m sure rain forests would agree on the side of evolution.

Apart from the ease with which we now converse and the debate over acceptability of presentation, many electronic systems have made life easier. Beyond email and instant messaging, we now have blogs and social media sites such as ActiveRain, LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s possible to conceive a thought, put it into words and publish it to the world almost instantly. Go back just a decade and consider how far we’ve come.

Yet has this ease of communication come to the detriment of thoughtfulness?

There are some who would consider the purchase of a gift card to be an easier and less thoughtful present than purchasing an actual gift. Others would see it as giving the recipient the option to choose what they would like. By the same token, could buying something online , having it wrapped “automatically” and sent directly to the recipient, be considered as less thoughtful than going to a store, buying, wrapping and shipping a gift?

Taken a step further, is sending a greeting card using an online service, less meaningful than hand-writing each card, affixing a stamp and mailing it?

For the record, I do all of the above. I am a regular shopper at Amazon.com. Most of my family lives overseas and it’s both easier and cheaper to shop on a localized website (i.e. Amazon in the UK) and have the gift wrapped and shipped instead of having to do it from here.

I use Send-Out-Cards for greeting cards. I can keep my address book online, select a card, “write” my message and send it without leaving my computer. The recipient gets a card with a nicely hand-written-esque font.

Does this mean I care less than I should? Am I taking the easy way out?

From my side of the fence I think not. I could understand all the arguments opposing my view. It’s a matter of perspective. Electronic communication, in all it’s forms, whether email or electronic-to-physical card, has made life more convenient. It has, for me, made me more reliable. I want to send greeting cards and gifts. I still take the time to pick them out. I choose my words carefully (most of the time – see my email post). I know that I care.

It’s the thought that counts after all, isn’t it?