Netiquette

What is Netiquette?

Network + Etiquette = Netiquette

According to Techopedia, "Netiquette represents the importance of proper manners and behavior online. In general, netiquette is the set of professional and social etiquettes practiced and advocated in electronic communication over any computer network. Common guidelines include being courteous and precise, and avoiding cyber-bullying. Netiquette also dictates that users should obey copyright laws and avoid overusing emoticons". Thus we see that in order to have proper etiquette, there must be guidelines in place. These guidelines include rules for how one operates on Social Media as well as rules and consequences for cyber-bullying.

Social Networking Policies

Why are they important and how are they implemented?

Social networking is a reflection of not only the individual who is participating in the network, but also a reflection of any other individuals, companies, or entities that may be referred to by the individual posting. For the individual, creating personal standards of "do's and don'ts" that you will hold yourself to can help to ensure a positive digital footprint that you can be proud of and that your future college, employers, and employees will respect you for. On a personal level, creating standards for yourself such as not creating negative posts unnecessarily about others, business, or entities is a great personal policy to have. Not sending emails in all caps is another good policy because it can be viewed as being offensive by the recipient. For a more inclusive list of personal social networking standards to live by, there is a great article by Satyendra Tewari (2018) on "30 Social Media Do's and Don'ts" that is a very good guide to go by.

On a business level, having a social media policy for your company in today's social media frenzied world is of the utmost importance! A simple post on social media that is taken out of proportion can cause stock prices to tumble, jobs to be lost, and sales to decrease. Most companies now have a social media policy that their employees sign as part of their orientation, contract, or agreement to work for the company. If you work as an educator, it is even more challenging. The average working person will usually have other adults as their friends or followers on social media. As an educator, you can potentially have hundreds to thousands of children sending your friend request and wanting to follow your posts! An Online Marketing Specialist for the blog site American Board named Rachael (2016) came up with the following list of 10 Social Media Rules for Teachers.

1. Know your school, county, and state’s social media guidelines for employees.

2. Do not “friend” or “follow” students on your personal social media accounts! Implement a rule that students can follow or friend you only after they graduate.

3. Keep your profile pictures clean. Your profile picture should never show alcohol, drugs, or anything that can be misconstrued as a gang sign.

4. Do not affiliate yourself with your school on a personal profile.

5. Do not geo-tag your posts with your school location.

6. Remember, it is possible to take a screen shot on Snapchat. “Snaps” or Snapchat posts can last forever.

7. Set your instagram account to private!

8. Never mention your school in any post.

9. Never complain about your job online

10. Never, ever, ever post photos of your students on social media!

Now, seeing as these rules are for teachers. To implement these practices in a business, simply change the students to anyone associated with the business, and change the posts to anything referring to the school to anything in regards to the business. Cheers!

Cyber-Bullying

What is Cyber-Bullying?

Cyber-bullying can be referred to as the sending of any electronic communication (blog, email, message, post, chat rooms, etc.) that is intimidating or threatening in nature. Forms of cyber-bullying include harassing messages, cyber-stalking, black-mailing, exclusion and impersonation. There is a wonderful presentation on cyber-bullying on linkedin.com by Jim Masucci (2010). It can be accessed via https://www.slideshare.net/jmmasucci/olmv-cyberbullying. In his slide show, he makes it clear that "cyberbulling can lead to arrest & prosecution".