Thursday, August 13, 2009

Wired's New Rules -- Did they get it right?

The cover story for Wired's current issue is "How to Behave: The New Rules."

I think some of these so-called New Rules are, unfortunately, not actually new.

For example, etiquette around dropped calls seems new, if you're living in 1995. Same for "Provide subject for all emails."

Look, I agree with "ditch the headset," and "delete unwanted posts from your Facebook wall."

Rules about dealing with exes on Facebook and whether to friend bosses on Facebook or follow them on Twitter are more current. (It may be interesting to note that the AP earlier this summer issued rules dealing with Facebook, and one of them was that AP managers are now prohibited from friending their underlings. It may also be worth noting that Wired's JargonWatch column reported on "Frolleague, a work colleague friended on a social networking site" in Dec. 2008 -- so Wired should have said something about bosses not friending the people they supervise at that time.)

But many of these seemed to be rules for dealing with Facebook like "Don't lie with your Facebook photo."

I agree with "Don't blog or tweet anything that has more than a half a million hits" because you'll risk looking outdated by the time you post something. (And, yes, I know I'm at risk for blogging about a Wired article.)

But I think we need more current New Rules.

I don't know what they are yet -- but I think most of Wired's new rules are tired (as they would say). I do think one rule should be that each company needs to figure out how to use social media, including Facebook and Twitter, based on its culture, and that it should consider, based on its culture, whether to establish groundrules for its employees, too.

What do you think are some good new rules?

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