Didn’t know there were commandments for social media, did you? Well, I at least certainly didn’t, but I came across the mighty list in the second chapter of Paul Gillin’s “The New Influencers.” While they all provided great guidance to the people of the blogosphere, a few particular ones really stood out:
Thou shall be transparent
This commandment can be taken on a fairly simple, direct level: use strikes if replacing a word, alter a post through a comment instead of deleting it. These matters of transparency seem like common sense. But I also think it hits a bigger notes: blogs are truly becoming a powerful player. We count on newspapers to be transparent- they have been our reliable source of news for years. If people are demanding transparency from blogs, it must mean people are looking to blogs to be a credible source of news. Not bad for a fairly new communication medium
Thou shall comment
The word “communication” implies a two way sharing of message. Therefore, we would assume that any communication channel, including blogs, has a balanced two way flow of information. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always seem to be true; people get caught up in their own opinions and forget to consider those of others. The commandment “thou shall comment” reminds us that what we truly need from a communication channel is a conversation. The sharing of ideas and opinions is what truly fosters good communication.
