The Simplest Social Media Rule
The Owl: Carlos Miceli
Today’s blog post comes from Carlos Miceli, a blogger from Argentina. He writes for OwlSparks. Enjoy!
Do you want to learn how to use social media? You must learn to respect people first. That’s it! You’re set! Forget everything else. It’s all about respect. Respect for people’s time and attention. You don’t need to follow the gurus telling you to reply to every comment, email and tweet. You don’t need to read the many blogs telling you what you have to do to get more followers and readers. It’s just common sense. It’s just human interaction. The same rules apply. People talk and you listen.
When I read bloggers telling us how to “treat” people, I can’t help but wonder: Do we really need to read this? Are people so different online? Do we lose knowledge on how to relate to each other here? I’m guessing the answer is no.
The thing is that the moment people started trying to make money online, they failed at the respect test. Subsequently, this gives us the opportunity to talk about how to treat consumers online. But, those profit seeking companies didn’t do anything differently than they already do in the real world. They market to us, rather than respecting us and engaging.
If you’re a company, then you need to read all of those posts, and remember to respect people– just like you do in real life. If you are a person and you can function in society, you probably already know all of that stuff.
Be respectful. It will get you very far, online and offline.
[...] Do read my guest post “The Simplest Social Media Rule” here. [...]
This is one of the biggest advantages I see that small businesses have with social media – we’re more used to communicating with our customers at this level. Good article
I think this a great read because it’s so obvious. And, I think people miss the obvious when they get online. Yet, I can understand why people need to read a “how-to” manual for social media because our brains tend to want to over complicate the unfamiliar.
Thanks Christopher. Agreed re: leveling the playing field.
I was JUST talking about this. How all the rules and guidelines and everything for “how to blog,” can really be summed up simply by remembering to BE NICE TO PEOPLE. That easy. Love it!
Great article. I agree with respecting peoples time,money and to offer them up what is worthy, edible information.
I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
I think the lack of respect online stems from basic lack of respect in general. When I go out shopping, I am not engaged – greeted or acknowledged- in most places. Most of the time the cashiers are talking to another employee; they hardly look you in the eye. So it’s not a surprise to me that online we fail to ‘look people in the eye’ and speak to them directly.
Engaging is something that every marketer must make a priority and conscience effort to do.
Great post!
[...] The Simplest Social Media Rule [...]
Social media from the view point of a SEM is different from that of a hobbyist. But there should be a perfect balance between the two. Social media can be a real good marketing strategy but people’s feelings should be respected as rightly conveyed by the post.
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