Thursday, April 12, 2012

Dos and don’ts of social media and journalism. In particular what good is Twitter?


It has been quite a while since social media had taken over the world. Everybody and everyone is using it in any way they want to. But did anyone ever think that what is an appropriate way of using this tool which is here to help us like other technologies and applications?
I know the answer is no because people are too busy to it. They already have lot to learn and do then why to waste their time in thinking about this. But, wait a minute is it really useless to think about it. No it’s not.
Yesterday, I asked randomly few people around me that what they think that is it really useless to follow any rule while using social media. 90% said YES and I was like what??? Why, why do you think so? 40% said because we already are following a lot of rules in our life so not one more, 20% said because we use it for fun and time pass, 30% said because it’s not worth any rule and 10% said we never thought about it.
Wow! Now these statics are very interesting to me. Isn’t it to you people? I am sure it would be. After seeing such statics I don’t think I should be giving a lecture here that what are the dos and don’ts for social media. But let’s give it a try.
I personally do take care of few things when I am using social media as I am journalist and I have to take care of everything that I say or post that is public but now a day’s even if something is personal don’t say it because you never know when a employer asks for your Facebook username and password and don’t hire you for whatever you have on your Facebook.
The very first thing that I personally do and want everyone else to do that DO have fun and be funny because you are here to relax. Twitter and Facebook are great forum for punchy jokes BUT if you are bad at jokes DON’T try it.  Just relax and keep clicking like button for others jokes.
One thing that irritates me the most is OVERSHARING of things. Please DON’T share every other thing that you see has a share button. Just REMEMBER one thing that it’s your account whatever you are going to share will represent you so be very cautious when sharing anything. Nobody is interested to know what your mom is cooking or how is your relation going on. The one who are interested in it would know it without you even tweeting about it.
The best part about social media is that it can keep you connected with all those people who are out of your reach. So DO follow the stars you’d want to be friends with, the newspapers you read, the film stars you adore and the journalist you admire. It’s the most in-the-know way to be in the know.
DON’T complain about your work here at least its Twitter not your mom. Don’t forget they can see you so it better you go home and give a call to your mom and tell her what is your boss doing to you. She is the most trustworthy person to complain about your work.
DO play nice and use wise and respectful words. This is a public forum, so don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face—or to a TV camera. Even if you can say it on someone’s face don’t say it here because it’s again not the right place to do it.
DON’T exceed the tolerable four-tweets-a-day limit. Come on have a life don’t make people say not again. If there is some breaking news then it can be OK but not on daily basis. Let people wait for you to tweet rather than making them unfollow you within a week after they started following you.
DO use Twitter to its full potential. It’s been the breeding ground for books, TV shows and political revolutions. You decide what’s next. You never know you can be the next revolutionary person. Remember the Arab Spring.
DON’T get too personal or negative it will not only affect the other person but it will affect you too.
DO engage and interact. This can be a good place to create PR and maintain them. You never know who can be a help or news in future.
Last but not the least, if you can’t follow these dos and don’ts then DON’T forget to make your account private. It’s your private possession until and unless you are not using it for marketing purpose.
I hope I didn’t boredom you to dead with my few pieces of advice that I HAD to share with you people as a part of my course.


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