Five Recommendations
Good social media conversation practices honor five key principles: Accuracy, Brevity, Consistency, Directness and Expansion.

Accuracy means that students should be precise and correct in what they say on social media. It means thinking before they write a message and send it; it means not reporting on something unless they know it is true; it means avoiding gossip and not spreading false rumors; it means checking facts before forwarding messages (just what we teach in our classes).

Brevity refers to the practice of communicating in short messages instead of long, detailed epistles. It means thinking about a shorter and clearer way to say things, because most people do not read long messages and often they can jump to conclusions from reading only the first part of an e-mail or Facebook message.

It also means reminding students that they should consider the audiences of their email, texts and messages. In fact, Twitter, which limits messages to only 140 characters, has been forcing students to send short messages, but, ironically, they have not learned how to explain things clearly and briefly when not using Twitter shorthand, like CU2 for “see you also.”

Consistency means developing a clear written voice and maintaining it. Because it is difficult to use satire or irony in e-mails or texts without a lot of work, the principles of consistency encourage students to find their own voice on e-mail and to use it on a continuing basis. That way people will recognize their identity and respond it. It also helps individuals to identify when someone else is using the student’s e-mail or other software to communicate a message. After all, developing a personal identity is an age-appropriate challenge for many of our students.

Directness involves writing or communicating to the audience of the e-mail, Facebook message or Tweet. Often, students do not consider carefully the specific audience of their e-mail, and tend to write in convoluted sentences or do not create a message with sufficient background to help the person reading it understand the message. Writing clear and logical prose is an art; doing it on e-mail, Facebook or Twitter will only help students in the classroom.

Expansion is the practice of giving and not taking—how to use social media to help others, to make positive things happen and not just use the communication tools to joke or write stuff that has little or no redeeming value. Using social media to help improve something in the community, to foster good activities, to organize an activity or to bring about social change represents a different use of social media and one that encourages caring for others.

Social-Media Guidelines
While these social-media etiquette guidelines apply most clearly to using e-mail or Facebook, students use all forms of software and all types of machines. They use Google, Google Alerts and YouTube for research purposes; they have RSS feeds and Mashups; they also thrive on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr and Foursquare. Whether your students use e-mail, texting, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Pinterest or other programs, however, these ideas apply just as fully. In fact, it is a great challenge to develop suggestions for them to apply these guidelines to various social-media programs.

Methods of Teaching
One of the ways we can help our students learn good practices involves telling them what they should do and should not do. Another method is to serve as a role model and demonstrate good practices, from turning off smart phones in various settings, to selecting an appropriate ring, to recording a professional voice-mail message. Faculty members can also show students the practice of placing smart phones on desks and tables during meetings or classes (a growing practice that prevents people from playing with their smart phones during meetings and social events.) In these ways, we can help show that etiquette is important with social media, as it is in teams and in kitchen settings.

Summary
Thank you for reading this column about etiquette practices for students who use social media. Next month, we will discuss the e-mail pledge and ways that students might apply it to Facebook and other programs. If you have comments about this topic or suggestions for others, send them to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I will include them in future “Mayo’s Clinics.”

Dr. Fred Mayo, CHE, CHT, is a clinical professor at New York University and a frequent presenter at CAFÉ events nationwide.