Social media lets us be ourselves under beer-goggled presumptions that people will accept us for who we are. WRONG!

Avoid committing social media suicide:

Speaking of beer goggles, just as you have been advised not to drink and drive, drunk dial or drunken text, the same rule applies to Twitter, Facebook and all your other outlets:

• Do not drunk tweet your social network. It will be there when you wake up for all the world to see.

As little children our parents taught us to be humble, take things with a grain of salt – not fling it back at those who got us mad:

• Do not throw an online temper tantrum, or call your followers “white trash pseudointellectuals.”

While, the internet is a great place to build your image, help you get a job, increase your social network and catch up with old friends, it can also destroy all of that in one simple click:

• Be careful what you say. It takes weeks, months and often years to build a following. It takes a second to alienate them all.

So you have a job and it … sucks. You complain to your friends, your family and anyone who will listen. But understand something, whining about your professional downturns on the internet can be replicated, saved and come back to haunt you with a vengeance. On typical social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc.) remember to avoid saying or doing anything that can endanger your job — or make people think you’ve simply lost your bloody mind and get you fired:

• Understand that 99.9% of what you say is 100% public.

You are new to the world of social media. All your friends are jumping on the wagon of “add me” and “follow” so you want to too:

• Do not massively add/follow/friend loads of people in hopes of them adding/following/friending you back, only to un-add/follow/friend them because you want to boost up your numbers. Social media is about sharing and communicating; it’s not all about you.

I know you’re super excited about your new blog post and you want to tell the world about it. Heck, I do too! But there is a fine line between sharing the information you bring to the table and spamming anyone within a wireless distance. Use a rule of seven:

• For every seven posts you tweet (on Twitter, for example) tweet one for yourself.

Same mentality goes for Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. These are more of your professional and very personal networks. Don’t bombard your friends on these outlets with every detail, of every little thing, you share and do via the likes of Twitter:

• Each outlet is different and should be treated as such. Don’t alienate one group of friends thinking they really care how many times you RT@mashable. (If you are on Facebook, get Selective Twitter Status)

Traffic was horrible on your way to work, your dog ate part of your presentation, you are wearing two totally different coloured socks, you forgot your bagel on the kitchen counter, you just spilt coffee on yourself and your iPod cannot identify a radio station to stream through, so you are stuck listening to static. I give you my sympathy. But seriously…

• Do not whine and moan about your woe-is-me all the time online. (Unless of course the above really did happen to you, as it would make an amusing story)

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace have built-in status updates or are based around status updates. While, I’m interested in knowing what you want to share with me, so I can reciprocate and we can learn together, I frankly do not care, and do not want to know, that you ran out of toilet paper via your Twitterberry application:

• Do not constantly tell your social networks what you are doing, every second of every minute in each day. (Show me a picture of something fun instead!)

First impressions do count; as does second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. Don’t try to be thinner, smarter, savvier, sexier, wealthier, poorer, prettier, or –er than the next person out there. Eventually, you will slip and your fall will not be pretty. This is not the 19th century and you are not Degas, your fixation with Miley Cyrus could land you in jail.

• Be yourself, keep it smart, keep it real and keep the inner creepy to a minimum.

 

This is Part One of the ‘Suicide Series.’

–

Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations and an M.A. in International Administration.

Copyright © 2009 Sasha H. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.