I'm not the most technical person, but I'm trying. As a writer I'm supposed to be building my "platform" so I have spasmodic outbursts of social network activity, but I know I could be more disciplined. Oh well.
And then there's learning all the etiquette surrounding each "thing". A lot of nice people on Twitter do the Follow Friday thing whereby you give other Twitterers (Tweeters?) a shout out. I get quite a few shout outs and always say a big thank you, but I'm pathetic at actually doing it myself. By the time I've remembered it's Friday, it's half way through the day here (Central Time, USA) and almost bed time, (ie. too late) in the UK, where many of my Twitter friends are. So apologies all round.
One thing I have managed to do though, is amass a list of pet peeves for Social Networking. (Consider it a public service announcement!)
- if you blog with a pseudonym, (as most of us do) and you want me to be your buddy on anything, please tell me who you are. I have several people queued up to be my friend, but I've no idea who they really are. I need clues people!
- don't add me to a Twitter announcement, as if I've made a major contribution to the article or am otherwise being high-lighted, when I'm really not. I get that you want people to go and read your blog, article, etc, but pretending that I am mentioned in it, only annoys me. If I like your stuff, I'll read it anyway; there's no need to fib.
- if you ask me to do something for you (like promote your stuff, link to your piece etc.) I am much more likely to do it if I think you've read my blog/book and aren't just befriending me for the nano-second that you need my time. I wouldn't dream of asking people I barely know to promote my work and it's a little brash when you do it to me. Having said that, if your stuff is good and you come across as a nice person, I'll usually help as much as I can.
- link to me. I have stopped commenting on the few blogs I come across that allow no link back to the person who's taking the time to read the post and make a comment. What's that all about? It's common courtesy.
Have I missed any?
I'm a)new to blogging and b)not a 'real' writer, so I haven't really embraced Twitter (between FB and all the blogs I read, it's really almost too much sensory input..) but I think all the 'peeves' you've listed are just common courtesy. Of course, we probably can all agree that's a commodity often lacking in all sorts of discourse (virtual and otherwise) so that's not really a unique observation. I actually included a link to your blog in my own post yesterday, since your to-do list was so similar to the post I was working on myself...hopefully I didn't break any unwritten rules - just found it so interesting that we both were in 'list mode' at the same time!
ReplyDeleteI am a newbie in social media and every day i learn something new. If I have stepped on the toes of others, it is due to ignorance, not spite or lack of manners. It is mostly that i haven't figured it all out yet. Overall I have social media very welcoming, but then again I didn't really know what to expect when i jumped in. I guess I got more than my feet wet.
ReplyDeleteHere's to improvement!
With you every step of the way. I spend quite a lot of time in a fog of social networking - ie I don't really have a clue. But I do find it annoying when a tweet makes it look as if I've contributed to an article but then I don't seem to have done at all. Grrrrr.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. As one URL "friend" said, why would you do anything on blogs that you wouldn't do in real life? People who say two words -obviously pasted - and then put 15 links to their site. What's the point? I can't do twitter - am such a luddite...
ReplyDeleteI don't have any real fast or hard rules. My main bugbear is people who retweet too much. Now, I've no problem with people RT'ing. Indeed, I do it myself, it's a great way of sharing articles and acknowledging a friend who has been particularly witty, but some people seem to retweet everything they come across and my feed gets taken over by randoms I'm not following. I found the film critic Roger Ebert particularly egregious for this. If you're RT'ing 12 plus tweets in a 30 minute period then you're not a maven as you seem to think you are, you are being annoying. I find it particularly irritating when people retweet people that I am deliberately not following or RT the same people so regularly that I might as well as bloody follow them.
ReplyDeleteHorses for courses, I guess. I know some people hate live-tweeting of events and God knows I've been guilty of that a good few times.
I agree when you're new it can be tricky to know how these things work.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree on the tweet where you're mentioned without having anything to do with the blog post.
My personal peeve, and I don't know if I'm alone here, is "follow me and I'll follow you back." To me, that's not the point. We follow blogs we enjoy reading, not just because someone is following yours purely so you'll follow theirs.
Gave up on Twitter, at least for now. Love your spasmodic outbursts, though. :)
ReplyDeleteHuh? What? Sorry, and you are..??
ReplyDeleteNext.
LCM x
Great list. Particularly #2 because that happened to me this week...
ReplyDeleteAffraid I am very much out of the Twitter loop. Good luck with it all. Culturally Discombobulated totally lost me!
ReplyDeleteStill haven't really got into Twitter, I just find it too distracting to look at it too often. I don't follow people back either, unless I know them, which is probably terribly rude but I am just not interested in the musings of someone I have never heard of before!
ReplyDeleteOoo, I'm sure you're right about the Twitter stuff. I just can't get that one right, so I've given up somewhat. It must be very stressful for you to have to build up readership etc online. That would drive me crazy!
ReplyDeleteOh, I think I sent you a friend request on FB, mainly because I was going to email you but couldn't find the email link on here.
ReplyDeleteI think I included a note though, as on FB I'm Nicky Husky, which is (almost!) my real name, but obviously Mrs Baum is my alter ego. Or something. I think I said who I was though, didn't I...