Pages

Sunday, February 20, 2011

How To Use Facebook Tactfully

The emergence of social networking sites such as Facebook has brought about a new age of expression and socialization, where you can meet old and new friends digitally instead of the normal face to face interaction. While most people may see the benefits of logging into Facebook for most of the day, there are still a lot of people that can get annoyed by what you post or upload onto the site. Remember, the people in your network, your friends, will see anything you post. Hence, it becomes so much easier to irritate, embarrass, and even hurt your friends. That said with millions of people online on Facebook, learning some etiquette and proper manners when logged on becomes that important. Here are some basic tips.

* Too much info, dude! This is probably the most common mistake that most Facebook users commit. It is actually the same case on Twitter. There are many people that continue to post updates on what they are doing. While this may seem cute to some of your friends, it actually irritates a lot more. Keep your updates to a minimum. For instance, posting a blow by blow of what you are doing every minute is just flat out weird. No one really wants to know what you are doing in the bathroom. Now, you may argue that this is part of your right of expression. Well, that is probably true but do consider that whatever you post will be read by the other people in your network via their live feed. That said be wary about the information you disclose to your network.
* Spam not man. This is related to the first tip. As mentioned, the people in your network will see whatever you post on their feed page. Unless you are posting updates on an important public event every minute, keep your updates to a minimum. Posting updates by the minute will spam the feed of the other people within your network. And, most people do not like that one bit.

* Tagging can be a sin. You may have experienced a lot of people, some of them you do not even know, tagging you on a note or photo that they posted. While this may be an acceptable etiquette, remember that tagging a person should only be done if the post is relevant and applicable to them. For instance, say the person you are tagging is in a photo that you posted. This is acceptable and will be greatly appreciated. On the other hand, tagging someone in a photo that was posted for marketing purposes, especially when the person you tagged does not care for it, is flat out rude. Keep tagging to a minimum.
* Stop embarrassing people. Some people are notorious for uploading hundreds of photos on Facebook and tagging the people on it. Of course, this is perfectly alright. However, some people go too far by uploading embarrassing photos of a person in their networks without the consent of that particular person. Remember, not everyone can take ridicule, especially when thousands of people may see it.


These guidelines on how to use Facebook properly are really just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other things that are considered bad manners on Facebook. The bottom line is to be sensible in whatever you share to the public as it may ruin some of the friendships you have built on the site.

0 comments:

Post a Comment