The dos and don’ts of social media

Avoid becoming the person who has us all scrolling past your account with a sigh by following these simple steps…

• Over-do the selfies. We all know that we live in a world where the selfie is an everyday evil. But really, anything more than a very rare appearance doesn’t speak well of anyone. Genuine excuses are few and far between.

• Over-post. Nobody wants to struggle through an endless trail of photos of your view/holiday/brunch from every angle and with every filter possible, in order to reach the posts they actually have an Instagram account to see.

• Like that photo from 74 weeks ago. Self-explanatory really. If you’ve ended up deep into that friend of a friend’s account they’d probably rather not know. Avoid that double tap at all costs.

• Tag people. Unless you actually want to damage a friendship, don’t underestimate the power of offence caused by ignoring someone’s presence in your photo.

• Pay attention to the caption. A picture might tell a thousand words but a few entertaining ones in addition to your photography skills can make all the difference. A simple description will not do.

• Game invites. ‘xxx has invited you to play *insert name of any of those games you’ve been ignoring ever since you joined Facebook*’. The most efficient way to lose the respect of anyone who receives yet another of these requests.

• Document your every move around the world. Everyone is probably already jealous of your increasingly exotic destinations. We might enjoy an insight through a few carefully selected photos, but a packing list, images of your boarding pass, the reassuring news you’ve arrived safely at the airport and views from your plane window? Not exactly necessary.

• Acknowledge someone’s birthday. No matter how much anyone denies it, birthday messages on Facebook have become an essential ingredient in the big day, and the absence of that quick post is unlikely to go unnoticed.

• Choose your profile picture carefully. The saying first impressions count will always hold true.

• Be the person who has nothing of their own to say. Endless retweets and quoting of others displays a distinctive lack of ability to think for yourself and develop your own opinions. Strive for a little originality.

• Use Twitter as a search engine. Unless you have a few hundred thousand followers, there is no justification for tweeting questions that could be easily resolved by a quick web search.

• Let anger get personal. Can’t handle the Monday morning traffic? Fine, feel free to tweet away. Mid-argument with a friend? Tweeting about it will never be gentlemanly behaviour, however subtle you might think your words are. Save it for a face-to-face conversation.

• Spell check. Is there anything more irritating than that repeated spelling mistake? Or anything more embarrassing than having it pointed out? An extra 20 seconds to read it through before pressing the blue button is well worth your while.

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