Growing up you would roll your eyes when mom told you certain things. Ok, some of us may still roll our eyes when certain things are said, but those lessons that mom taught you growing up can pay dividends in social media. Granted, your mother’s advice may have been before the onset of social media, but those old lessons are classic and never to out of style.
Quite often in our social media writings the style is curt, short and not personal. In some cases that’s appropriate. It’s just as good sometimes to counter program, take your time and use our old friends Please and Thank You.
Please
The other day a friend of mine had a genuine plumbing emergency. Her main water line broke in her house and she had no way to turn it off. While all the plumbers in the audience would say “go to the street and turn it off with the key”. However, the majority of people don’t have that knowledge or a key, so she tweeted and Facebooked, “I need a plumber NOW, who knows one that I can trust!”
Within five minutes she had her choice of plumbers; that came with recommendations and phone numbers. In her case she was in a hurry and didn’t have time to say ‘please’ at the end of the sentence.
In many cases, especially when people ask you to RT something on twitter they’ll say please. A little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down and please will help get you big results when asking for a RT.
Thank you
The next day my friend was very quick to thank all of the people that sent her some plumbing information.
Saying thank you is an easy, polite thing to do. And you should do it every time you ask for something or are given something on social media. It sounds like your mother doesn’t it? It’s fun to say “Thank you”. A. It gets your face in the line of conversation again and B. It’s just good manners.
It might not be appropriate to use either of these terms every time you post something, but occasional use will shake up how your posts are perceived. Some people get in a rut or robotic method of posting; try using either of the old classics when applicable just to be a more social social media person.
