Miss Manners was Right!

Miss Manners is right.

There, I said it, and I know that you're hating me for it right now!  I'm making something you do for fun and making it have rules.  Yeah, I'm throwing cold water on your social media fire.  I'm sorry, but much like real life, your social media life has consequences.

Why can I say such outrageous things?  Because it's true.  Experts will back me up.  You can't expect to be liked and interacted with if you have bad social media table manners.

I just finished reading two really great pieces:
The first is the 7 Unwritten Rules of Social Media: http://www.openforum.com/articles/7-unwritten-rules-of-social-media?extlink=em-openf-SBdaily by Rajesh Setty

and the other is The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk: http://thankyoueconomybook.com/
If you haven't read them yet, check them out.  In fact, get Gary's book on Audible.com because he adds all sorts of tips and hints off-script.

Here's what I've learned about Social Media Manners:

Common trending indicates that the world has transitioned from a service environment to a friend and family environment.  Service is just so-so now, we expect to be served.  It’s sooooo 1990s.  

Now, we expect to be allowed into the lives and hearts of the companies that we align ourselves with.  We expect to know about new babies, first steps, marriages, small successes, promotions, bobbles and recoveries—exactly what the company is focusing on and why.  Today’s clients believe silence is as severe as lying or committing a crime.  

Why?  

If a client believes they are family, they expect to be treated like a treasured spouse, not a stranger.  Surprisingly, the same way to make a wife feel loved is the recipe for loving our clients:

Tell them we love them

Show them we love them in concrete ways

Continue to show and tell them consistently in new and creative ways

We need to be constantly innovating how to serve our customers better.  Our customers should want to interact with us more often and for longer.  As we offer more items to keep customers informed, more greatly skilled team members, etc, we can celebrate those releases with our customer family.