Let's face it: in today's society, we could all benefit from more courtesy, more civility, and MUCH more polite behavior. It's one of my all-time pet peeves. As Corky says to Nancy in the 2008 film Nancy Drew, "Courtesy is awesome!"
Nowhere is this more true than in the online realm, and in the social media sphere in particular. And the latest research backs this up. As reported in this recent missive by PRNewser, "It's not just nice to be nice -- a new survey suggests social media users ditch people, sites and communities online that aren't."
In the findings of an April, 2010 civility study conducted by Weber Shandwick, Powell Tate and KRC Research, 34% of the respondents reported "tuning out" of social networking sites, and 39% reported "general tone and level of civility" as to the reasons why they tuned out. Even more telling, uncivil behavior led social media users to defriend/block someone online (45%), stop visiting sites (38%) and drop out of online communities or fan clubs (25%).
Of course, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but yet, it should give us all pause about we say online, and how it can potentially impact personal and professional reputation.
As my mother used to naggingly remind me: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."
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