First, I’m hosting a giveaway on my blog and I’d love for you to stop by.
There are rules in social media and over the last few weeks I have seen two of them broken.
#1 most annoying out there – being on social media purely for the purpose of telling everyone how wonderfully fantastic you are. Example: I had someone mention they were following me and would I please follow them. So I went to their twitter feed and almost every single tweet was something along the lines of “This is my favorite book – it’s amazing. I should know, I wrote it.” Pass, pass, pass. That’s the equivalent of inviting people to a party and making them all stand around listening to you talk about how fantastic you are.
#2 jumping around the blogs where people are posting work in various forms as part of contests and being a jerk. This happened recently in a contest I was participating in, where someone was bashing on titles, weaknesses in plot, writing, ideas…you name it. Here’s the funny thing – if you say that online, it stays online. Writing isn’t a competition like in the Olympics – writing it a joint venture between hundreds of people and the good ones will celebrate successes of others and encourage those who are down and work hard to be nice to others so they can receive that kindness in return. Remember in Disney’s Bambi when Thumper’s mom says if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all? Yea, same on the internet.
I learned much of what I know about life and social media from so many people, but if you would like to see some great examples of how to portray yourself, I recommend:
David Powers King
Elana Johnson
Ali Cross
Cassie Mae
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Thinking Through Our Fingers 
I recently got a follow from a Twitter user whose self-description line read: If you don't follow me back, I will unfollow. O-kay then. I didn't even have to go to his Twitter feed to make up my mind. Way to make some new friends, buddy!
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There is no excuse for bad manners either in person or online. Great post, I have hopped over from Tasha's blog.
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Exactly! Bad manners will come back to bite you. That's enough to make me watch myself.
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I am one of my favorite people online, you should check me out! 🙂
Sorry, couldn't resist. I am amazed at what people say and do online. I guess I'm more reserved in real life and that carries on to my online presence too. I'm curious if the people that are like that online are like that in real life too. Or do they just hide behind their computer?
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Loved this post, Tasha! I feel like I know exactly who you're talking about on Twitter. 🙂 There is a LOT of karma in the writing world and in the social media world, which is probably why you're so successful in both of them. 🙂
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Yes! Totally agree. Social graces should apply to online communities just as they do in face-to-face situations. Just as I would avoid someone at a party who is rude and just brags about him or herself the whole time, I have no problem unfollowing such people on Twitter.
And I'm also a big believer in karma 🙂
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