Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

September 17, 2008

Patterns of Bad Social Media Behaviors

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 10:05 am

In my email this week was a leadership statement from Vincent Wright, Social Media Consultant, man I admire. If you’re on MyBlogLog or Twitter, you may have met him. If you haven’t yet, look for him. You’ll know you’ve found the Wright guy when you see his Wright hand avatar over there.

Wright_hand

Bad Social Media Teachers
by Guest Writer Vincent Wright

In each social media environment, there are patterns of behavior.

There are good patterns of behavior.

There are bad patterns of behavior.

Social media owners, moderators, and group participants recognize both the good and bad patterns of behavior.

Those who seek to use social media platforms for their intended usage, enjoy witnessing those who use social media the right way.

Those who seek a more self-centered purpose — even to the detriment of the platforms they are on — use social media poorly, and jeopardize the platform for all users.

The first group could be called social media environmentalists.

The second group could be called a whole bunch of names — none worthy of sharing with a “PG 13″ audience.

But, think about this: patterns of behavior don’t just come into existence without a cause, without a stimulus.

Someone must conceive, create, and cause the propagation of both the good and the bad behaviors we see.

If we see what I call “profile stamping” on Ning, where a member will go to dozens upon dozens of profiles and stamp the same banal message with the same graphic over and over and over, some bad social media teacher taught them to do that.

If we see what I call ” ‘hi’ stamping” on Yahoo Groups, where hundreds of members attempt to sign up for private, moderated groups just by saying, “Hi”, some bad social media teacher taught them to do that.

If we see what I call “toll boothing “ on Linkedin, where some “enterprising” Linkedin member wants to charge you a fee for a service that is free, some bad social media teacher taught them to do that.

If we see what I call “invitationitis” rampant on any number of social media platforms, where people without any modicum of self-control seem to indiscriminately invite just for the heck of inviting, some bad social media teacher taught them to do that.

There is no shortage of other bad social media behavior we could add to the above list - feel free to add yours - but, I love that the word “teach” literally means “to show”. So, if someone is showing you bad social media behavior then, they are bad social media teachers.

And this, too: since the word teach means to show, what are you teaching those who are watching what you’re showing them on these social media platforms?

Vincent Wright
Social Media Consultant
Twitter.com/VincentWright | Linkedin.com/in/VincentWright |
MyLinkingPowerForum.com | MyVirtualPowerForum.com | MyLinkedinPowerForum.com
My Virtual Power Forum on Li Groups | http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/732357 |
________________

Vincent,
This is going to run while I’m gone to BlogWorld. I agree with the heart and hope in this message. I bet that some are “self-taught” social media experts who are now teaching others to do these nasty things.

Bet the folks who read this have more bad social media practices.

–ME “Liz” Strauss


Filed under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog |



C'mon. Let's talk!

8 Comments to “Patterns of Bad Social Media Behaviors”

  1. September 17th, 2008 at 11:54 am
    Cath Lawson said

    Hi Vincent - that is a great point. I actually stopped visiting a fairly new blog, because after a couple of visits, the blogger sent me automated messages each day, asking me to Stumble and Digg her stuff.

    She did stop sending the messages after a while. And I gave her blog another chance as it occured to me that someone had obviously taught her to do this and she had no idea it was unacceptable.

  2. September 17th, 2008 at 11:58 am
    Christie said

    For a PG-13 term, might I suggest “social media opportunists” for those with bad social media manners?

    An appropriate moniker for those who wish to reap the benefits of social media platforms without any of that pesky relationship-building first….

  3. September 17th, 2008 at 11:59 am
    Amy Derby said

    Liz and Vincent — What I found most interesting about this is the concept of showing-by-example = teaching.

    See, here’s how my mind works: I started reading this and thought, “Why am I reading this? I’m not a teacher. Oh yeah, I’m reading this because Liz rocks and if she likes this Vincent dude then he must rock too. So reign in the ADD for a minute, Amy.” (Yes, this is really what I do all day. Talk to myself, type, talk to myself…)

    So I’m reading along, feeling pretty proud that the stupid things I do haven’t been listed as bad yet, and then I got to the last one and went “Doh! I just did that yesterday!” I accidentally sent LinkedIn invites to everyone on my gmail list rather than the boxes I meant to check (which disappeared after I confirmed something by email and the screen changed). So about 55 people (which wasn’t bad out of 5000 or so) took the time to write to me to ask why I was spamming them. I felt like a moron, and the first thing I thought to myself after I realized my mistake was that many very cool people would probably hate me now.

    But something else happened instead. Two of my clients (who happen to not know anything about social media, because that’s not their jobs) signed up for LinkedIn. I saw the ripple effect within about three hours, and I had done exactly what you said; I taught badly by example. My silly mistake made a lot of people angry yesterday, including one of my clients who joined LinkedIn and invited a bunch of people making the same mistake I did. Luckily the second client wrote to me and asked “Should I be doing this?” before he did it. There wasn’t a big enough font for the NO I rushed to type back.

    Moral of my verylong story: someone’s always watching/learning, even when you’re not trying to teach anyone anything but “don’t be an idiot like me.” :-)

    Thanks for a great post Liz and Vincent!

  4. September 17th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
    Maxine Teller said

    Very good points, Vincent. (Liz, thanks for having Vincent on as a guest,) I think that the reason for “bad” social network behavior is that people have not made the mindshift from the “1.0″ ways of opportunism to the “2.0″ ways of collaboration. Social media is not just about participation (as you note above), it’s about immersing yourself in the new media for the purpose of collaboration because you believe that trust, openness and transparency will enable a better world, better solutions, better innovations. Without this mindshift, it’s natural to have “bad behavior.”

  5. September 17th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
    Dalka said

    Vincent,

    Nice to see you here!

    I’d probably add the small group of people who preach one thing online and then frequently act in a totally different manner in person is a serious problem area.

    Leadership is after all by example!

  6. September 17th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Everyone,
    Wish I had more time to respond to your great observations, but as you might guess, I’m BlogWorldExpo-ing and trying to get my act together.

    I think you have the conversation under control without me. :)

  7. September 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
    Vincent Wright said

    Hi, Liz!
    Thanks for your kind introduction and thanks, too, for letting me share a few words with your GREAT audience!

    I appreciate the good input everyone has offered but, Amy, this line made me smile for any number of reasons: ““Doh! I just did that yesterday!”” So, thanks for being so cool to share it with us.

    Cath, I also had a similar situation to yours when a “friend” greeted me on Skype at the very instant my computer can on very early in the morning with “http://www.I’mNotCourtesyEnoughToDeignToSayGoodMorningToYou-AND-WhyBotherWithSuchNicetiesWhenYouKnowInYourHeartOfHeartsThatTHE-ONLYReasonI-EverSpeakToYouIsToGetYouToLookAtALinkAboutMeAndMyUnbelievablyGreatWebsite.com”

    PLOP!

    No good morning.

    No consideration that I have my “Do Not Disturb” sign on for Skype. (I LOVE those people who are cool enough to notice the light and who send a message saying something like, “I saw you’re on Skype but, you had you “Do Not Disturb” sign on. I really need to talk with you so, if possible can you give me a call within the next 2-4 hours? - - - To me, that’s SO COOL! Of course, I always try to call them as soon as I see the message.)

    I’ve probably already written the longest blog response in the world but, Maxine, I just have to say that I like you point about “the mindshift from the “1.0″ ways of opportunism to the “2.0″ ways of collaboration.”

    I think it would be cool if Liz would have a live conversation about this topic. (Let’s twist her arm, ok? :-) )

    Hope you’re having a great time at BlogWorldExpo, Liz!

    Thanks, everyone!
    Vincent

  8. November 5th, 2008 at 4:57 am
    Social Media Leprosy and Other Problems said

    [...] Then a couple of days ago, it occurred to me that they may not even know they’re doing something wrong - they’ve just learned from the wrong person, so I decided to give them another chance. To discover whether you’re suffering from Social Media Leprosy, check out this post by Vincent Wright. [...]

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

C'mon Let's Talk!