12 Rules to Public SmartPhone Etiquette

Cell phones have become vital to our daily lives, and people are relying on them more and more for both business and private calls. Particularly smartphones  as they are rapidly evolving into indispensable devices.

With an increasingly connected society, it is becoming more and more important to know how to use these devices properly, without annoying or irritating those around us.

Following are twelve rules to using your smartphone in a way that allows you to conduct business but as not to annoy everyone around you!

    Twelve Rules

1.   If you are in a situation where you cannot move away from others, (a bus, theater, meeting, dinner table) you should not be using your smartphone. No one wants to listen to your conversation and it is rude to force them to do so. 

2.    If you use your phone for business, keep the ringer to a normal phone ring, not the latest Top 40 hit, or your favorite childhood song. 

3.    Turn your ringer off during public performances. 

4.   You do not need more than one electronic device with you at a time. Either use your cell phone, smartphone or your tablet, not both. And if you must do get a Phablet.

5.   Do not ever use your smartphone while driving. Pull over, and save yourself and your fellow drivers from a potentially dangerous situation. No Calls. No Texting. No skyping....etc. 

6.  Especially when in a business situation, do not wear an earpiece or other attachment for your phone. 

7.    Do not scream into your smartphone. You should be able to use your normal speaking voice, or do not make or receive the call. This prevents others from having to listen to your conversations. Having a poor viber-skype connection over WiFi is no excuse either.

8.    You do not need to have your smartphone with you everywhere. In fact, there are some places that a cell phone should never go, let alone a smartphone- such as a hospital, house of worship, a classroom, etc. Turn it off, or set it to Silent, if you must have it with you. No Facebooking.

9.    Do not try to show off all that your phone can do in a public place, that's what YouTube is for.

10. Do not take your phone out of your pocket, purse, or bag when in a meeting, at a meal, or other public venue just to hear it ring. Put it on vibrate or turn the ringer to a reasonable level that you can hear with it still safely tucked away in your pocket, purse or bag.

    
  11. If you are with company, in a meeting, at the dinner table, or even just visiting, do not         over do it with messengers, and you better not be continuously updating your social           networks status. No browsing. And certainly no AngryBirding.  

12. Before posting your captured photos of people with your smartphone, make sure you have their permission to post to your social networks; regardless whether they are your friends or just happened to be there. 

Be Connected. Be Considerate. Be Social. Be Polite. Be Safe.

LinkedIn Company Pages - Update Your Company Status

LinkedIn just announced a  new feature for Company Pages—"Status Updates".  What a brilliant idea! You can now, engage your audience with Company Status updates, which will allow you to:

• Post updates directly from your company overview page.
• Share company announcements, product releases, promotions, and other news.
• Engage directly with your followers and possibly their entire network.
• Optimize the conversation by seeing which updates are most engaging.

Updates can only be made by company "Administrators" when the Company Page is set to "Designated Admins Only". And make sure that your News Module is set to Show news about my company, (you can see the News Module by clicking on the Admin Tools - a blue drop down menu - choose EDIT, the New Module feature is located at the bottom of your page), otherwise, the Company Status update field won't show on your company overview page; and you won't be able to post any company updates.

For more information go to LinkedIn's Company Status Updates

My Top Four Social Networks - and how I relate to each

Am probably on 100+ of social and professional networks that I can't even remember joining. The ones I kept on using are the ones that provided the most value to me personally and professionally one way or the other. I still use about a dozen other professional and niche networks, but am not talking about those today.

This post is about the social networks I love using the most and use almost on a daily basis; which are Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Despite the many similar features, I find each network is unique; in how I use it and what it means to me.

Twitter, I find provides a window to the world, or one big social event that never ends; from news to gossip, music & videos, intelligent and not so intelligent conversations, and I just love the topic focused chats. Twitter offers great two way exposure.  About 40% of my coaching clients found me on Twitter. 

LinkedIn, is brilliant in every possible way, professional and very useful, great for brainstorming ideas and sales leads. Groups, InMail and LinkedIn Today; well I just love. LinkedIn results in about 60% of my Consulting business, and 50% of that are of clients initiating first contact! 

Google Plus, well you just got to love the clean and simple layout. Google+ is where I learn about things and meet great people of brilliant minds. Hangouts are super cool, I've even used them for business meetings and coaching sessions. Though I found that most people are more comfortable having those over Skype. Circles make me happy, and Sparks I enjoy. Google+ to me is more about the people.

Facebook, well, its FACEbook, it's an interactive  family album and a school yearbook that updates me on what every family member, classmate and friend are all doing, playing and Liking. A little bit more personal than professional for me. Facebook Ads I found great for generating Page LIKES and creating traffic to outside links, that's about it. But Pages I like, more than Groups. Feel free to visit my pages. Coach Ghada Facebook Page  , Decapolis Consulting Facebook Page go ahead and LIKE them! 

Now concerning privacy issues on all social networks, most of posts and updates are PUBLIC, Facebook is where I pay more attention to privacy settings since the family and friends are almost all addicted to posting pictures almost instantaneously; and for the occasional awkward shared joke or link.

My personal Advice about privacy online, applies to the same advice I give about writing: if you don't want people to find about it, don't write it! simply don't put into writing anything that might come back one day and bite you!

With constant privacy policy and layout changes on any given social network, you just can't be sure! So, if you don't want people to find about it, JUST don't write it, don't post it, don't upload it. don't share it, don't tweet it, or even like or plus it.

The cat always gets out.