Think Before You Tweet
So, I’ve been asked to speak on a Broker Panel at Inman Connect San Francisco on July 13.
And the topic is “Think Before You Tweet.”
Which makes me wonder why they asked me to participate. LOL.
But I digress…
And I don’t mean to make light of what really is a key question in the larger context of Social Media and the protocols for doing things “correctly.”
So, what does it mean to “think before you Tweet?”
Thou Shalt ENGAGE!
Let me preface by sharing what I consider to be the “Golden Rules” of Twitter:
- Engagement | Just as in real life, the BEST conversationalists are the ones who ask questions…listen to the responses…and then ask more questions. When Tweeting, engagement is EVERYTHING. Remember, “you” is every other person’s favorite word.
- Be Intentional | Tweet with a vision and a purpose. Before every Tweet, I try to stop and think: “What is my ultimate purpose in Social Media, and how does THIS Tweet further that purpose?”
- Digital is forever | Digital is FOREVER. When I’m about to hit “send” on every Tweet, I think, “How would this look on my resume?” If the answer is “not good,” I TRY not to send it. Or, as Twitter superstar Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) said it so perfectly:
The Do’s | “I S E E”
If a Tweet doesn’t fit into one of these categories, think before sending it:
- I = Inspire | What makes a leader great? They inspire. Same goes for great Tweeters.
- S = Share | This is the very essence of Social Media: sharing quality content. THIS is the power of peer-to-peer recommendation, and why many consider Social Media the greatest cultural shift since the industrial revolution.
- E = Educate | I have learned SO MUCH from other people on Twitter. Be that person who shares knowledge. That’s cool.
- E = Entertain | Everyone loves to be amused. Entertain and the world will follow you.
The Dont’s | “C A T”
On the flip side, here are some general guidelines of things to avoid while Tweeting:
- C = Carnegie’s “3 C’s” | Dale Carnegie said it so well, “Any fool can criticize, condemn or complain, and most fools do.” Don’t be a critic, a condemner or a complainer, except when truly warranted and then in moderation.
- A = Arguments | Healthy, respectful debate is cool. Having a brawl in public? Not so much.
- T = Triviality | This gets to the heart of the debate over the optimal “signal-to-noise” ratio of Twitter. Over time, I am finding that I am tuning out the people who share too much trivia. I’m looking for meaningful content (or at least amusement, inspiration or opinion!).
In the end, ALL of this is highly subjective. And no one Tweets “perfectly” (certainly least of all me!).
This is just my humble opinion. Take it for whatever you think it’s worth…
PS – For a look inside the return-on-investment this strategy has created for us, check out this.
Photoshopping talent provided by Todd Waller (@ToddWaller).
Comments feed
I agree, it is a really fine line between engaging your followers and eliminating them. The goal is to get them to interact with you, not de-friend you!
The ‘do’s and “don’ts” are exactly what I would expect from a social media expert. More crap about not offending anyone and being “nice”, and basically not showing your own personality online. In the real world outside of social media consulting life is full of conflict. Real, live conflict. And conflict is a good thing, and it has driven the human race to excel since the dawn of time.
In addition, social media is about being social. Being yourself. And I guess everywhere outside of the social media expert ivory tower kum-by-a colony, people sometimes don’t like each other. That’s not a bad thing. That’s life.
Dennis Fassett
Dennis,
Thanks for your comment.
My response:
* 20ish years ago, I took a class from Dale Carnegie called “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” The principles I learned in that amazing, 15-week course changed my life, radically for the better. They are common sense, practical and they work. And those principles formed the philosophical foundation for this post.
* I completely agree that life is full of conflict, and that not everyone ends up a friend. I completely disagree that having such exchanges openly in Social Media – where others can watch and form opinions about the participants days, months, weeks and even YEARS later – is appropriate or intelligent. I make judgments about people all the time based on things I see them say on Twitter. Many of them are not good. I’m hoping to limit the amount of times someone reads something I’ve written and draws negative conclusions about me.
* Continuing the prior point, one of the best aspects of Social Media is that you can make your point indirectly by simply unfollowing someone. Why create an enemy when you can just eliminate them from your life with one click and no drama?
* I completely agree that Social Media is social. And just as I would never stand in the middle of a cocktail party and have a shouting match with another guest, so too would I never do that in Social Media. The principles and the common-sense rules of engagement are identical.
* Using the principles that are espoused in this post, Todd and I have created results that we think speak for themselves, as outlined at http://p1fran.com/2010-ytd-update/.
Best,
Michael
Mike – I was by no means referring to behavior such as getting into a shouting match at a cocktail party. I agree that it’s stupid whether on twitter or actually at a face to face cocktail party.
My point was more to counteract the extreme vanilla behavior preached by the mass of “social media experts” that infest the internet, who all seem to dictate that disagreements of almost any kind are to be avoided at all costs for the simple reason that one’s existence should be singly focused on never ever offending anyone. While I can appreciate that Unmarketing said that “healthy, respectful debate is cool”, what I find in practice from these “social media experts” is that any divergence of opinion from theirs is akin to a “brawl”, to which they take extreme offense.
Conflicts, which I define as substantial differences of opinion, are good, worthwhile, and productive. I think this is true especially in and on social media tools such as twitter, because the breadth of engagement far surpasses what you can accomplish by other means. Do they get heated and emotional? Yes they do, and that’s not a bad thing, because it means that important things are being discussed. And isn’t that the point of social media?
Dennis Fassett
I’m fond of saying to people, “If it’s online and attached to your name, it’s part of your branding strategy, for good or ill”. I’m always surprised when people seem not to understand this.
Ed Han´s last [type] ..Staying Focused- LinkedIn- Your Second-Best Friend