Social media etiquette: What’s #appropriate

In a day and age where the majority of communication sits literally in the palms of our hands and people are only a text away, it’s still important to mind your p’s and q’s in the virtual world.

REAL WORLD

One of the most important things to know is how to check up on your virtual statuses while interacting in the real world.

• DO turn off your ringer
• DO let the people you are with know if you are expecting a call
• DO use your phone to take photos
• DON’T take posed public selfies
• DON’T use your phone as a “safety blanket” for awkward situations
• DON’T check it every five minutes

TWITTER

Twitter, the social network that limits you to 140 characters and up to four photos per tweet  is used by over 232 million active accounts, and on a network this big, it’s important to watch what you do.

• DO tweet updates from whatever football game you’re watching
• DO choose your hashtags carefully
• DO interact through favorites and retweets, ghost accounts are just creepy
• DON’T tweet random updates from your life – nobody cares what you ate for breakfast
• DON’T copy tweets from big accounts
• DON’T overuse emojis, it just looks dumb

INSTAGRAM

The picture based social media platform has over 150 million active accounts, and is a great way to share what you’re doing with a photo worth a thousand words instead of a verbose status update.

• DO tag your friends in photos
• DO post photos of something other than your significant other, or your cat
• DO comment at least three heart-eye emojis on any of your friends’ selfies – duh
• DON’T repost any form of twenty questions
• DON’T post similar versions of the same photo all at once
• DON’T overpost – once every few days (or weeks) is plenty

SNAPCHAT

Snapchat is a great way to control who sees what by allowing you to send timed photos and messages that expire once they have been viewed. It also allows you to post a photo to your Story, which can be seen by any of your Snapchat friends. There are over 100 million active users.

• DO think carefully about your username – it can’t be changed
• DO learn how to block people as soon as you get it
• DO use it to take ugly photos of your friends and share them
• DON’T post selfies to your Story
• DON’T have a Story longer than 100 seconds (and that’s pushing it)
• DON’T open a snap as soon as you get it – the other person can see when you’ve opened it

FACEBOOK

This slightly dated network is a great way to show your extended family what a great person you are with life update, and is also a great way to tell everyone when your birthday is.

• DO put your birthday on your profile
• DO delete all old profile pictures
• DO like The Apple Leaf page
• DON’T add people you literally just met
• DON’T create multiple accounts
• DON’T update your relationship status every time you hit a bump in the road

PINTEREST

A social media network that caters to 300,000 daily users. It allows you to create themed “boards” where you can pin photos relating to the topic, and follow other people, or just their boards.

• DO create a wedding board (if you are a girl)
• DO follow boards, not people
• DO save workout photos to motivate yourself to do nothing later
• DON’T repin memes
• DON’T write spam comments with your own url in them
• DON’T create boards with less than five pins