How to be a Human Online

207 3d_tin_robot.jpgLovely blog post from social media guru Chris Brogan on how to be a human online or “at a distance” as he puts it.

Aimed at corporates trying to be friendly on social media, there are also some useful tips for the average geek wishing to communicate their personal charm a bit better… get friends, dates, free software, that sort of thing.

His general gist: it’s about relationships, not numbers – that’s what separates us humans from the bots – talk back to other people and talk about them. This sounds suspiciously like Circle time to me. It also sounds like a good idea.

My favourite tip:

Mixing Personal and Professional – I’m for it. People ask me all the time whether they should talk about personal things on their business account. I say yes, absolutely. But be measured. There’s a huge difference between self-aware and self-involved. In my personal case, I’m lucky. I’m my own brand, so if I want to scare you with tweets about my doctor’s office, I can. You might not be as lucky, but please, in the name of all that is holy, don’t be boring. That’s a worse crime.

Check out the full post thing here

I’d also add: use pictures of cats? I like them. And robots don’t have cats so that sets you apart from the non-humanoids on the internet already.

Anna Leach