The new term for the badly behaved in 140 characters
Social Media has this nifty ability to adapt and evolve – seemingly daily.
There’s a new term floating around for someone who practices bad behavior on Twitter – “Twanker.” And it came into being at the June Twitter 140 Characters Conference courtesy of Kodak Chief Marketing Officer Jeffrey Hayzlett.
The story, as related in Mr. Hayzlett’s blog, is that he asked the crowd during a speech to the conference what they would call people who behaved badly on Twitter and the overwhelming response was Twanker.
You can read more in his blog post Crowdsourcing a new term for bad behavior on Twitter The blog has spawned a Twitter hashtag – #twanker – a search on which reveals some good discussion.
In the blog Mr. Hayzlett describes three types of Twankers whom he labels: “Ambushers,” “Lazy Auto Repliers” and “Tweeting Terrorists.”
These are good examples, but I’d like to add three more:
The Vain: People whose Tweet stream is littered with “I” as in “ I just …” “I am…” and “I wonder …” Please get over yourself, you are a Twanker.
The Rude:People who respond to Direct Messages (DM) with very public “@” responses seemingly designed to put the other person in their place. “@XYZ you have no right to tell me what to do” or “@XYZ I can’t believe you would think I care” or similar rejoinders to a private message. Please remember what starts in a DM should stay in a DM or, you guessed it, you are a Twanker.
The Self-Important: People who never miss an opportunity to puff up their own self-importance. “Just had lunch with (fill in the blank with big business name)” or “Just had a meeting with producers of (fill in the blank with name of big TV show).” OK, you’re a big deal … but apparently have a fragile ego and need to keep reminding yourself – and us – of just what a big deal you are. And that makes you a Twanker.
There must be more great examples … and I’d love to hear them. The beauty of Social Media and platforms such as Twitter is that it can be self regulating … please share.
Related post:
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
Showing posts with label etiquette. Show all posts
Showing posts with label etiquette. Show all posts
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
10 Social Media No-Nos
Things that will (at least) earn you a bad rep or (at worst) get you fired
Social Media can both be a very forgiving and a very unforgiving environment for a newbie.
It can be forgiving when users are genuine in their interactions and confess their sins, own up to their errors and behave politely. Under these circumstances it is likely their community will understand and forgive them.
Social Media can also be unforgiving when it senses someone is behaving in an “anti-social” way. While many of the acceptable norms in Social Media are obvious, some may be less so.
Therefore here are 10 Social Media No-Nos. Commit any of these sins and watch your reputation slide, or worse if you are publicly representing a business, you may get fired:
1. Not Listening: This happens a lot in life and Social Media is no different. If you want to get more out of your interactions with others you need to be a good listener. For a great take on this see Five Levels Of Social Media Responses
2. Not Responding: Just as in life it can be rude to not answer someone who is talking to you. There are rare exceptions: When someone is being rude to you, they do not always deserve a response.
3. Not Responding Appropriately: You should always respond in kind (or better yet take the high road). If someone says something you disagree with privately question them. “Flaming” someone (engaging in an ugly public debate) will leave everyone charred.
4. Not Being Genuine: Social Media lives on the Web so if you choose to be less than “real” you will be discovered. Fakes do not survive long in the ultra-connected world of SoMedia.
5. Not Being Humble: Your life may be the best and your successes too numerous to count, but nobody likes a public braggart. Your ego may fight you on this, but you need to remember Social Media is about everyone else and a certain equality of ideas and opinions.
6. Not Being Responsible: Social Media can be a powerful tool. With power comes responsibility. Be a jerk, slander someone or be hurtful online and it will come back to haunt you.
7. Being Rude: Manners cost you nothing but some forethought and consideration of others. If you truly don’t know the right thing to do in a given situation you can always try the searchable database at The Emily Post Institute.
8. Not Being Sympathetic: Life is hard. People make mistakes and suffer misfortune. Being seen as unsympathetic will earn you a bad rep in life – online that rep will spread even faster and further.
9. Not Sharing: If you are fortunate enough to have expertise or access to resources that can help others please share them. Social Media rewards those who share with good Karma points. Many of today’s online superstars got there by being good at sharing themselves and their resources.
10. Sharing Too Much: Conversely, there are those who share too much detail, too much noise and too much irrelevancy. Know your communities and understand what it is about you they most want to hear.
Related posts
10 Commandments for Social Media
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
Social Media disasters
Social Media can both be a very forgiving and a very unforgiving environment for a newbie.
It can be forgiving when users are genuine in their interactions and confess their sins, own up to their errors and behave politely. Under these circumstances it is likely their community will understand and forgive them.
Social Media can also be unforgiving when it senses someone is behaving in an “anti-social” way. While many of the acceptable norms in Social Media are obvious, some may be less so.
Therefore here are 10 Social Media No-Nos. Commit any of these sins and watch your reputation slide, or worse if you are publicly representing a business, you may get fired:
1. Not Listening: This happens a lot in life and Social Media is no different. If you want to get more out of your interactions with others you need to be a good listener. For a great take on this see Five Levels Of Social Media Responses
2. Not Responding: Just as in life it can be rude to not answer someone who is talking to you. There are rare exceptions: When someone is being rude to you, they do not always deserve a response.
3. Not Responding Appropriately: You should always respond in kind (or better yet take the high road). If someone says something you disagree with privately question them. “Flaming” someone (engaging in an ugly public debate) will leave everyone charred.
4. Not Being Genuine: Social Media lives on the Web so if you choose to be less than “real” you will be discovered. Fakes do not survive long in the ultra-connected world of SoMedia.
5. Not Being Humble: Your life may be the best and your successes too numerous to count, but nobody likes a public braggart. Your ego may fight you on this, but you need to remember Social Media is about everyone else and a certain equality of ideas and opinions.
6. Not Being Responsible: Social Media can be a powerful tool. With power comes responsibility. Be a jerk, slander someone or be hurtful online and it will come back to haunt you.
7. Being Rude: Manners cost you nothing but some forethought and consideration of others. If you truly don’t know the right thing to do in a given situation you can always try the searchable database at The Emily Post Institute.
8. Not Being Sympathetic: Life is hard. People make mistakes and suffer misfortune. Being seen as unsympathetic will earn you a bad rep in life – online that rep will spread even faster and further.
9. Not Sharing: If you are fortunate enough to have expertise or access to resources that can help others please share them. Social Media rewards those who share with good Karma points. Many of today’s online superstars got there by being good at sharing themselves and their resources.
10. Sharing Too Much: Conversely, there are those who share too much detail, too much noise and too much irrelevancy. Know your communities and understand what it is about you they most want to hear.
Related posts
10 Commandments for Social Media
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
Social Media disasters
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
1. Add value to others’ lives. This is the Golden Rule of Twitter.2. Don’t ask for anything. Or at least don’t ask 99.9 percent of the time.
3. Use RT (Re Tweet) label. Taking someone else’s tweet and then tweeting it as though it were your information, in a sense, is stealing. Be original. There is no shame in a RT. Without people doing this some content would not get very far.
4. Thank people … often. Thank them for following you. Thank them for RT-ing you. Thank them for including you on a #FollowFriday list. Thank them for a great tweet.
5. If you reply, mention what you are replying to. “Great tweet” is meaningless response if the person you are getting back to has had more than a single tweet in the past week.
6. Use Direct Message for anything that is less than positive.
7. Only use Reply if you think your followers will care about your reply.
8. Do not use an auto responder or an auto follow bot. It sends the message that your fellow Twitterers are just numbers and not that important to you.
9. Play nice. It seems so obvious, but if you anything you say on Twitter can be misconstrued (where a lot of visual clues are missing) – it will be.
10. Be you. Being genuine in all your Twitter dealings will, over time, set you apart from those who are these just to get an audience, just to sell something or just to be annoying.
Further reading:
10 Commandments for Social Media
Social Media disasters
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