How to be your better self online: A primer of manners
- Sat, July 23 2011
- Filed under: Social networking and web 2.0
I presented on online etiquette with Sarah Durham and Jocelyn Harmon this week at the Bridge Conference. It’s such a critical topic, because we often inadvertently offend our supporters online or fail to express sufficient gratitude in our engagement with them. In fact, a lack of appropriate kindness and attention is the number one reason donors cite for leaving us.
So how do we do better?
As Jocelyn points out in her blog post, we have to understand the cultural norms. Be human, generous and attentive to reciprocity. As Sarah pointed out, here’s what that looks like:
1. Don’t push your own agenda too hard or too fast online—especially in social media. Bad manners.
2. Manage conflict warmly, openly and directly. Even bad situations can turn good when you gracefully manage unhappy people.
3. Build a sense of community and generously celebrate others over yourself.
4. Maintain a consistent presence - keep your online presence updated and respond quickly to email.
5. Share helpful content across channels.
6. Email thoughtfully. (For more on good email, the Email Charter is gold.)
Thanks Jocelyn and Sarah for including me!