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Newsletter May 2009 Mobile phone and social network etiquette Was it really only a decade ago that hardly anyone had a mobile phone? They are now ubiquitous and we have a good sense of how to use them in the workplace without offending others in our company—although we sometimes forget. Use of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo and Friendster is also exploding but the etiquette is not yet as sophisticated. This month we are sharing our tips on the topic and links to some light-hearted articles. As always, we love to get your feedback and ideas so don’t be shy. Regards, Jenni Metcalfe, Mary O’Callaghan, Melanie McKenzie and Michelle Burton.
Contents Social networks – for creative procrastinators Facebook is for the middle-aged |
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By Jenni Metcalfe Mobile phones are wonderful for keeping in touch, but they can also be a maddening issue for polite and effective communication. Here are my top tips for better mobile methods in meetings: 1. Turn your phone to silent/meeting before the meeting starts. 2. If you are waiting on a truly urgent call, let people know at the start of the meeting that you might need to leave, and apologise in advance. Turn your phone to vibrate or a special low beep. Sit near the exit or with a clear path to the exit. 3. If you forget to turn off your phone before a meeting (we all do it at times) and it rings, press ‘answer’ and hang up immediately. Then turn it to silent. If it’s really important, the caller will leave a message or ring back. 4. If that urgent expected call comes through, leave the meeting before answering the call. 5. Wait until the break to check text and voice messages (yes, people can hear your voice messages almost as well as you can when you play them back).
6.
Wait until the break to send text messages
and make calls.
Move to a place where you won’t disturb
others who are busy doing useful things like
networking (Have you noticed how much louder
we speak on a mobile phone compared to a
landline?). |
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By Melanie McKenzie It’s one of the fastest growing trends on the internet. But just about everyone—including communicators, marketers and event coordinators—is still trying to harness the power of online social networking. Just like mobile phones and email, chances are it will take us a while to develop formal social rules for how we use it. In the meantime, here are my top tips for good social netiquette: 1. Remember that social networks are public—anything you post can, and will, be seen by other people including employers, family or neighbours. Think twice before posting that crazy photo of you (or your friends). 2. Send an email instead if you don’t want everyone to read your message; especially if you are including mobile phone numbers or details about personal plans to meet up with another person. Social networking sites are not a replacement for email. 3. Make sure you are recognisable from your profile photo if you want to be found, or you want people to accept your friend requests. Photos of objects or your children/pets are not good options. 4. Think about which email address you will use for your social network. Even if your employer doesn’t mind, a constant stream of updates at work can be distracting. And you may not want everyone to know your work email address. 5. Don’t spam your friends with frequent requests to add applications.
6.
Don't advertise your business through your personal
profile.
Constantly feeding your friends marketing messages
or information about your favourite pyramid scheme
is a sure way to lose friends. Create a business
profile instead. |
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Social networks – for creative procrastinators By Mary O'Callaghan If you think Facebook is useful for sharing mental disorders, increasing the likelihood of embarrassing yourself, collecting fake friends ‘the way a cat lady might collect Himalayans’, or you just need a good belly laugh, read Matt Labash’s hilarious tirade, ‘Down with Facebook!’. Labash would much rather procrastinate by peppering his real friends with ‘an incessant barrage of individually tailored emails, many of them lengthy’ as opposed to the abbreviated, ‘promiscuously generic’ Facebook messages (Tom is glad it's the weekend… Anne is taking Tyler to daycare… Meg needs a hug…). What’s wrong with procrastination anyway? If it was good enough for Leonardo da Vinci, it’s good enough for me. Leonardo, never good with deadlines or productive mediocrity, jotted down his endless stream of insights and ideas in a stack of notebooks over 35 years. ‘The notebooks give the impression of a mind always at work, even in the midst of ordinary affairs’, says WA Pannapacker in ‘How to Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci’. The author claims that ‘procrastination reveals the things at which we are most gifted — the things we truly want to do’. I get it now. Let’s get that profile onto Facebook and start sharing those creative thoughts. Think of it as like Leonardo’s notebook jottings. Genius! Well, evidence of a pulse at least. Mary O’Callaghan is wondering if Leonardo would’ve used Facebook…
Mary O’Callaghan is procrastinating, creatively… |
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Facebook is for the middle-aged By Mary O'Callaghan Time magazine’s 10 reasons (slightly adapted) why Facebook is really for middle-aged people: 1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of. 2. We're no longer bitter about high school. 3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. 4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network. 5. We're lazy (give us news feeds). 6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. 7. We have children (and photos of them that we want you to see). 8. We're too old to remember e-mail addresses. 9. We don't understand Twitter. 10. We're not cool, and we don't care.
Read the complete article:
‘Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies’. |
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Quotation of the monthThe world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork.
Oscar Wilde |
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We're happy for you to reproduce articles from our newsletter as long as you acknowledge Econnect Communication Pty Ltd as the source. |
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