Social etiquettes : A new-age imperative

To having felt that 'manners' are a way of showing others that one cares about them. Having perfect 'table manners' are just a way of showing others that one has respect for those around the table. 

As wiki puts it: Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating - different cultures observe different rules.

It could lead to a sense of superiority, with the level of sophistication adopted by different cultures. But the essence of good manners is just pure respect and care. With the etiquettes from dining to business to family to personal space, they have been more or less instilled into the person with their upbringing and experiences.

In a world where social media has become ubiquitous with communication, and innovation constantly pushing for newer mediums to emerge, one can consider it imperative to exhibit basic social etiquette within the social media framework. Its not like trying to teach manners with general tips like:

“Not to talk loudly on cell phone in a public place.”

“To refrain from taking selfies in a funeral.”

These ought to come naturally, by what you call as common sense. My efforts would be to shed light onto the various tools available in the social format. Its like understanding an eight-course meal place setting. 

With so many applications offering similar services, which does one choose to use. Or to put it another way, do you really need to signup with various social media services, without really understanding what the knives and forks are meant for?

There are umpteen startups that have come up in the last few years addressing the social-web-mobile space, which have attracted attention with their services on offer. 

Just to zip through those that have ‘democratized’ (mass following) a certain need:

Facebook : Democratized social networking

Social networking initially gained popularity with the likes of Orkut, MySpace etc. But the one that became numero uno in this space and eventually disrupting various other industries is the Facebook. 

Started as a neat way to stay in touch with high school, college mates, Facebook today has become 'the' protocol for Social networking. Two features that have been acknowledged for the social behemoth’s rising popularity is the ‘like’ button and the ‘news feed’.

Your profile - The rules clearly state, one profile for a person. You are a real person, providing your real name. No duplicate profiles allowed.

Profile picture - Its your avatar, that speaks whether you are a likable, competent person. To upload your real picture. Not your favorite actor's or your pet dog’s picture. If you are the shy kind, just leave it blank. While uploading a profile picture, to note that its nothing serious as in a passport picture - you can be quite laid back, smiling, cute pout selfie, as long as it portrays who you are.

Cover picture - This feature was brought out with an intention to highlight the person’s passion, thinking, interests etc. Wide panoramic groupies, foodie, travel, baby pics, quotes, wallpapers etc are popular uploads.

Like button - To show that you appreciate a certain picture, post etc. When you hit the ‘Like’ button, its a public activity that is visible to all and can show up in their feeds. Hitting the 'Like' button for a Page will result in following the feeds from that page to come into your news feed.

Share button - When something is worth sharing within your circle or general public, hit the ’Share’ button.

Timeline - Its a wall that you can use to pin your noteworthy events, with settings to make the posts public or within your circle.

Important note while posting comments, is that the Facebook algorithms that control the software end are quite complicated with ever changing SLA (service level agreement). Your comments could be visible to the network (friend’s friends etc). If you want to send a private message, send it directly to the contact.

For comments and counter arguments, its not a debate centric arena, where you shoot a reply to the comment till you feel that you have won. The reason being that the replies to the comment triggers a series of updates on the followers feeds. If its just an ego centric activity without real stuff, better to not go beyond a single counter argument.

Twitter : Democratized micro blogging

Who ever thought fine tuning bulk SMS to 140 characters long and naming it tweet would become a popular platform for micro blogging. As someone wise once quoted, “No perspective, no perception. New perspective, new perception.”

Your profile - You can provide your real name or anything that you fancy. You can even make a fan or parody account. All these without breaking certain rules of course.

Handle - The @username is how you refer to other users on this platform.

Tweet - Ability to restrict your say within 140 characters and still make sense.

Retweet - Sharing your tweet to the follower’s network.

Followers - Those who follow your tweets.

Following - Those whose tweets you follow.

Hashtag - Making keywords in your tweet searchable within this platform.

Linkedin : Democratized professional networking

Its all serious business when you are trying to sell yourself with your resume. You put your best foot forward, no unruly commenting and no casual will you be my Friend request. In here you touch base with your future recruiters, employees, partners, mentors - its a quality networking platform.

Connect - For a business purpose or staying connected with professional interests.

Follow - Those whose content updates you are interested in.

Influencers - Thought leaders whose content updates are well received.


Groups - Users with similar interests forming a community.

In a nutshell, its pimping at an all time best. This is where decision makers get their high.

Google+ : Democratized social sharing

Ideal tool to share your posts (pics, video links etc) to a specific group of people. To group them based on friends, family, colleagues, common interest, as a circle and create a sharing network.

Somehow I have never used it, though have known it to serve this purpose well. 

The reason being that Google democratized search, and they are the best in that particular business. They have further scaled their product spectrum with variety of newer services. With a single Sign-in into Google product suite a person is able to search, mail, blog, chat and now with G+, share too. 

Pinterest : Democratized interest networking

Ideal tool to create a wall of your interests by pinning them. A platform for collaborating based on interests.

Instagram : Democratized picture networking

There was a time when editing photos and making them look good needed a professional’s touch. Then Instagram happened. With simple to use filters and editing tools, Instagram made photos look great child’s play.

A picture speaks a thousand words. Instagram also made sharing them a breeze.

What is common to all the above mentioned tools is networking based on transferring content. To receive content, one has to ‘Follow’ their posts. 

Its important to note that ‘Follow’ here is to follow the content being created, and not to befriend as a person.

Whatsapp : Democratized multimedia texting

Sharing multimedia through text messaging had never been this easier. Whatsapp got people as individuals and small groups, to come together using their mobile number as a Sign-in tool. 

With instant setup, simple to use interface, lightning fast multimedia transfers and staying connected across time zones, Whatsapp is texting platform innovation at its best.

This list is not exhaustive and only includes some of the most popular tools. 

Something common to all such service providers is their modus operandi. While their front-end is of a service provider, the back-end is that of a marketing platform which collects data for analytical purpose.

It can be said that most of these tools have been able to “Democratize creation, consumption and distribution” of content. Its upto the people to make the most of it in a ‘social’ manner.