As the world moves from Web 1.0 to 2.0 to, yes, Web 3.0, it’s important to dial in to the ever-evolving etiquette - or “netiquette” - of being a good digital citizen. Here’s a list of the basic levels of engagement, and respect, that will guide you through…until next week.

Check your spam/junk folder. Why is this at the top of the list? Because email is still the leading digital communication tool. And you cannot allow AOL or Yahoo or Gmail to decide for you who should and should not be contacting you. Do everyone a favor - before you send out a perturbed email, demanding to know why you haven’t heard back from someone, haven’t received your online order, etc. - CHECK YOUR JUNK FOLDER FIRST. Check it every day and twice on Sundays.

Turn off any and all email screening tools. Let legitimate people email you without having to fill out additional forms and verifications. No one who is trying to offer you a job is going to pursue you that hard! Make it easy for people to contact you, hire you, send you money, etc. Yes, it will take more of your time to sift through junk mail - but otherwise, you are sending future employers and contacts the message that your time…is worth more than theirs.

Investigate alarming emails before you respond or forward them around the world! Just so you know, Justin Lim is not trying to reserve your Web address across Asia; “Sunny” and “Margaret” are trying to scam your credit card information. Also, “Pay-Pal” isn’t shutting your account down due to non-activity; the improper hyphen in the company name should help expose that’s a fake - and so should the fact that the reply email address does not go to an address at paypal.com! And, no, President Obama did not say [insert outrageous, wholly invented, unreferenced quote that you cannot seem to find on the Internet when everything he eats, whistles or wears is documented in astonishing detail] about your personal demographic. There are plenty of sites that dissect and debunk the urban myths, spoofs and phishing emails you receive. Check before you reply or forward!

Keep your voicemail inbox clear. Let someone contact you and offer you that job, or invite you to that networking event, or tell you that the meeting has been canceled! If your cell phone inbox is always filling up, and there’s no time to listen to an hour’s worth of messages, go wild and sign up for voicemail-to-text-or-email. Read your messages, reply and clear as you go.

Be present on at least one social network. They are not just for teens to chat or people to gossip about their day - do you really still believe that after the ‘08 political campaigns? Professionals can join networking groups, post and answer questions and get personal introductions to people you need to know on LinkedIn. If your project or organization has any events to schedule, Facebook takes it to a new level. And don’t buy into the easy dismissals of Twitter - the outreach possibilities are limitless (I was hooked on JPL’s micro-blogging when Mars Phoenix set off - and I cheered the minute they found water on Mars).

Create separate standard user IDs for your personal vs. your professional presence in social media. If you’re just getting started, create a professional online presence first. Let people find you, network with you and evangelize for you!

Reserve your standard user ID across the latest social platforms. Even if you are terrified of “tweeting,” lock down your name(s) for now because you will give in to Twitter and Qik and the social tools that follow ultimately. Remember when you said you would never join LinkedIn or Facebook? See how much progress you could have been making professionally if you had joined a couple of years ago?

List your contact information across multiple platforms (e.g., email, mobile #, chat ID, social network link). If you still do the business card thing, update them, or at least write the additional info down or sticker it on the back of the card. And your email sig lines should list them all. Don’t pass up an opportunity to promote your message and allow people to network!

For an example, network with me at:
The Official Planet DMA Web Site
Twitter: @planetdma
Skype: planetdma

CREATE A WEBSITE. It’s free, fast and easy. Being a professional without a Web site right now does not reflect well on your drive or your ability/willingness to learn new things. It is akin to not having a telephone. You don’t even have to register a domain name or pay for a hosting company or learn HTML or upload a single file. That’s so Web 1.0! Instead, just register with a third-party blogging site, like WordPress.com. Choose a template, post your info and let people find you online!

Google first; ask second. Before you call a tech savvy friend, hire a freelancer or give up on a task or information that you need, try typing exactly what you’re looking for into www.google.com. Chances are ridiculously high that thousands to millions of other people also want to know “how to color code my email inbox.” And someone probably has taken the time to put together a little slide show with screen images that you can click through for free. As I wrote earlier, if you ask others to take the time to walk you through it before trying to learn how yourself, it’s telling people that your time is worth more than theirs.

Try one new thing each month in the techy world. Not for mindless fun but to improve the way you work. If there is an old-fashioned, time-consuming way you’re used to doing things, learn a new solution. To get started, just Google your frustrating old process and see how many new options appear! Prepare a shared document with your team on a free wiki, like Wetpaint. Prep your production budget and schedule online with a free trial of Show Starter Scheduling & Budgeting Plus. Use Word’s Mail Merge feature to send personalized emails to your list instead of blasting everyone - and forcing all of your contacts to field the dozens of group replies throughout their day. (That’s actually been around for twenty years, but I still introduce people to it a few times a year.)

At the heart of this post is the hope that each time you say, “I don’t need to learn how to do that,” you will begin to hear “I’m afraid I can’t learn how to do that” - and scoff. I know you think the Internet is a complex place, and that 8-year-olds are only mastering it because they are born with some crazy, mutant technical gene. But in fact, kids do well online because they think it will be easy, and they discover they are right. Give it a try - you will be surprised how simple these tools are. And I hope you’ll be even more surprised by the extraordinary professional possibilities awaiting you as you update your habits for what is now a predominantly digital world.

Last Modified: Saturday, July 18th, 2009 @ 19:35

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 9:14 am and is filed under New Media, Planet DMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.