Are you guilty of poor social media etiquette?

[I originally posted this on LinkedIn, hence the reference to it. It applies to any social media, though.]

I can understand that people like Richard Branson cannot go about clicking ‘like’ and responding to everyone’s comments. The posts of the ‘hoi polloi’ (including me), however, are read by a relatively small circle of connections — significantly smaller than Richard’s, anyway. Therefore, in such cases, I think it behooves the author to offer some form of acknowledgment or response, especially if there is a comment. (I too have been guilty of this, but I make an effort these days.)

Some ill-mannered authors I have recently come across:

1. There was a post — nothing new in it; it was just well-written. I clicked ‘like’ and commented on more than one post of the author’s. She too is clearly a ‘commoner’ like me — assuming she posts only on LinkedIn — because her posts appear to be getting about the same eyeballs, likes and shares as mine are (maybe fewer). She did not respond or even acknowledge. This is common, though.

2. This one takes the cake. Yesterday morning, a connection of mine (who does not have too many posts, eyeballs, likes or shares so far) posted his badly written article, with a link to a Google form for a survey. I found that there was an error in the form — 7 rows but only 6 columns. I filled it out anyway and added a comment there about the error, knowing that the author himself would see it.

Separately, in his LinkedIn post, I added a (positive) comment and my own views on the subject. Naturally, I made no reference here to the error in the form. I did not click ‘like’ on the article, though, because I did not think it was that impressive — I do not believe in ‘liking’ to flatter.

Guess what the author has done!

a) He has now corrected the survey form but not had the decency to reply to me to say, “Thanks for pointing it out; I’ve fixed it now.” I was reader #11, so I must have been form-filler #11 or lower — and the post still has 32 eyeballs — so it’s not as if he was swamped by people reporting the error.

b) He has deleted my comment, which was not even derogatory in any way! Maybe he’s waiting for Richard Branson to comment on his masterpiece.

Any cases you can add?

[Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cocker_Spaniel_Joya_with_Tongue_out.jpg

Isn’t it funny that we find it cute when a dog or a baby sticks its tongue out, but not when a human being does?]