How do you make your online interactions meaningful?
Last week, readers shared the unwritten rules they follow to stir good in society–things like giving up a seat for an elderly person or buying a serviceman a free meal.
This week, I am wanting to spin that same question toward online interactions. What unwritten rules help you positively contribute to the online world?
Most of us are aiming at the same result (ease of strategy, respect of other users), but often have different approaches to achieving that goal.
People of the Second Chance, for example, builds community by following everyone who follows them on Twitter.
But some people feel like the best way to build community is to unfollow. Not long ago, Michael Hyatt explained that he unfollowed all most all of his followers because he wanted to get back to a manageable place where he could interact well.
Jeff Goins challenged an unfollowing strategy here, asking Twitter users to be very thoughtful before auto-trashing their online buddies.
I started out auto-following, but quickly realized I was failing to keep up with the twitter-overload. Instead, I let my website readers know that I make an effort to respond to all questions posed via @mentions on twitter. Over time, as I get to know regular commenters, I often end up adding them.
Some leaders opt for a more corporate facebook page, which invites strangers to become fans of their work rather than friends who are connected to their personal page. This allows people who don’t know them in real life to follow their professional work.
And some make these “fan pages” so personable, they feel like the real deal.Dan Kimball, for example, went out of his way to explain to his followers that he didn’t like the “fan” option much either, but that Facebook forces the hands of influencers by refusing to let any individual have more than 5,000 friends.
I still maintain a personal–rather than a professional (i.e. “like”-able) Facebook page. I have vowed to accept all friends who send me a request, whether they are long lost grade school “frenemies” or random readers who picked up my book half way around the world.
I also try to respond to every personal email (that is not mass-email, spam or an event invite) sent to me via Facebook. I’m probably not 100% for responding and I don’t always get my reply out within a 48 hour window, but I’m pretty close.
If the ever-so-famous Seth Godin can reply to his emails, I can do this much.
Website/Blog Commenters
Some people stack up so many commenters (many of which are excessively combattive or self-promotional) that they have to institute some kind of commenting policy. For example, veteran leader James MacDonald’s commenting policy is here.
Theologica makes anyone who wishes to comment create a membership profile on their website that even requires would-be posters to look up an Old Testament verse (how’s that for beating spam-bots?).
Still other bloggers, like notable author Donald Miller, allows anyone to freely post but comments do not appear until they are approved by a real human.
At my website, I use a spam-catcher to weed out automatically-submitted comments, but allow everyone to post comments–even comments that challenge my own positions–freely. If anyone chooses to be inappropriate though, I reserve the right to delete comments at my discretion.
I also leave comments responding to those who comment on my site, in order to create a natural place for conversations started by the post.
Collaborative Posts
Because Brotherhood (or community/collaboration) is a main theme on my blog, I also try to create posts that invite interaction or contribution from my readers. For example, last year I welcomed friends to submit posts that spoke peace on September 11th.
And right now there are two places on my website that invite readers to add their names to online communities around human trafficking and writing for publication.
That’s just a quick overview. People may have thoughtful approaches for Linked In, Google Plus, and any number of other social networks as well.
I would love to hear some of those unspoken rules that guide your online interactions. Maybe I can learn from you. Maybe we can spread some good-old-fashioned virtual people-loving together.
(Click on the comments link by the title of the post to share your unspoken rules.)
Jen November 26, 2011 (10:49 pm)
Twitter: I follow back people that look like real people. :) I already follow more people than I can keep up with, but lists help. And I try to always reply to @ mentions and DMs and keep conversations going. As for Facebook… I really have to have some idea who a person is before I’m comfortable accepting a friend request.
In my mind, Twitter is for engaging with people I don’t necessarily know, and Facebook is for staying in touch with people I know or would like to know better. And for me, Twitter wins. I love connecting and conversing there!
And there is no good way to get conversations going on my blog (though I always reply to comments and am grateful for them!) so I just use that for stuff that’s too long for Twitter. :)
Sarah Cunningham November 27, 2011 (9:31 am)
@Jen Thanks for sharing. Twitter has definitely become a tool that provides more interaction than previous social networks for some of us!
I tried to start lists a while back, but after a while, it got to be a lot to just manage the people coming in and stick them into lists. This gives me some inspiration to try again tho! =)
Rachel M. December 1, 2011 (4:37 pm)
If I send a comment on Twitter to a popular Tweeter, I like it when they send back a response, even a simple thank you is nice. But no comment back and I’ll usually just stop sending any comments to that person because I assume they are too busy to notice. It’s okay but an answer is always appreciated too!
I liked this post, very informative.
Sarah Cunningham December 2, 2011 (2:24 pm)
@Rachel M I know what you mean. Even though, to some, I might have a lot of followers on Twitter…to others, I’m just a tiny fish in the ocean they don’t even know is there.
I try to respond to all unique Twitter comments and questions, though I can’t always respond to every person who RTs or answers a question. (Unless I took up tweeting as my full time job…if you find someone who’d pay me to do that, by the way, I’d consider it! =)