My social media rules

There is no etiquette, there are no rules. Make your own and make them known.

Do you find yourself facing social media overload? With Twitter followers, Facebook friends, Flickr friends, LinkedIn connections and countless other social networks to manage, sometimes I just find myself a touch overwhelmed. Do you?

All of a sudden, I found myself with more than 800 followers on Twitter, which compared to some isn’t a lot, it is a daunting number to me. I can’t follow everybody back and feel like I’m making genuine connections. And this is leading me to make my social media rules.

Be genuine

The old standby is back again. If you’re putting a false impression of yourself out there, people will associate you with that and not respect the “real” you. Don’t be fake.

Twitter is disturbingly Google friendly. I spent a few years as a reporter and most of my articles have been over taken by Twitter musings, blog posts and a video interview I did more than a year and a half ago. It is vital that anything you put out into the public be representative of your talents, skills and opinions.

Be visible

If you truly want to foster genuine connections, don’t sign up for every shiny new bubbly social network that pops up. Unless you can actively spend time there and create a community. If you neglect connections and networks, they will quickly dissolve. I like to say that the best part of social networking is that it is a passive technology — you get out what you put in.

By focusing your efforts/connections into fewer places, you are able to have more quality interactions that are more beneficial to both parties.

Be flexible

The other day, I unfollowed about 50 people on Twitter, but since then I’ve followed just as many new people. There’s a sociological theorum out there called Dunbar’s number, which states that a human is only capable of so many stable connections at any one time. I think that social networks have greatly expanded that capacity, but your brain and attention are still finite resource that require flexible management.

It’s important to know that you can’t connect with everybody and you can’t manage 1,000 profiles. By being flexible with your interactions, you are able to provide a more genuine social interaction.

In a nutshell

Here are my rules in a nutshell:

• I will be myself
• I will not follow, friend or accept everybody.
• I will engage, interact and participate
• I will not be disappointed by a lack of response
• I will ask for you to read this blog
• I will not force this blog down your throat
• I will look at your profile.
• I will be genuine.

What are your rules? What are your social networking guidelines? I would love to know.