We all feel the need to bend the rules sometimes. In social media, it’s no different, there are many ‘rules’ that can be bent or even broken – it’s new and most suspend judgement – except on this one area.

Social media has one LAW that should NEVER be broken.

You may think you know what it is – and maybe you are right. Social media is about CONVERSATIONS – if you are shutting down conversations, you are breaking the LAW!

The point is not to push your opinion on others, but to provide a place where everyone can express their opinions.  It is our job to promote a discussion where all sides are safe to express themselves.  Catherine Lockey from Cyclone Marketing brings up this same idea in regard to Linkedin.  Her blog post, “Are you the King of Linkedin?”  talks about 6 surefire ways to alienate your connections by trying to be in charge of the discussion; I have listed them below.

1. The Know It All
2. Arrogance
3. Yes Man / Woman
4. Group Control Freak (Bully)
5. Spammer
6. Innovative Entrepreneurial Expert

We believe these types of behaviors all lead to the same place – controlling and quashing the conversation – and they should be avoided on all social media platforms in order to be truly successful in online communities.

Remember, the online community has a long memory and although they can be very forgiving of honest mistakes, they are NOT going to forget a mistake of this caliber.  You have chosen to be online and social in order to share your opinions and thoughts – allow others the freedom and respect to do the same – whether they agree with you, or not, doesn’t matter.  Instead, try to facilitate the conversation in a safe place (like your Facebook fan page or in your Linkedin group), and the online community will remember and respect you because of your willingness to listen.

Have you had an experience (good or bad) where someone was trying to control the conversation or push their agenda? Share it with us on Facebook!

Tags: internet marketing, Reno Social Media, Social Media

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Online Marketing, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.