For many years, businessmen and businesswomen were known to follow professional body language and a specific etiquette norm to build an image and establish respect amongst their social surroundings and partners.
For the past five years, the diversion of traditional etiquette applied face to face, has immensely moved online and many women in business statuses specifically have lost the respect they’d earned due to wrong approaches used online. Therefore, Netiquette was introduced to take offline approaches online in the business world in a more ethical manner.
Originally, Netiquette is a combination of the word ’net’ (from internet) and ’etiquette’. It means respecting other users’ opinions and displaying common civility when posting your views to online discussions, be it personal or in groups.
Undoubtedly, social media platforms have a huge part today in shaping one’s image and voicing their opinions while reaching out to their communities. Therefore, if a woman entrepreneur becomes involved online, she then needs to be careful on how she portrays herself in all aspects, what she communicates and what she shows. Moreover, every woman in business should follow specific rules of behavior and apply those to sustain the image built with others.
Subsequently, here are some tips that should be taken into consideration when applying Netiquette:
- Keep your followers and people in line with what you are doing and working on. Showcase your success and express failures; people respect that,
- Engage with your followers! Reply and follow back; it will build admiration,
- Use IGTV, as it is the next online TV to showcase your business and talents. You can always provide tips in relation to your business targeted to people who want to learn,
- Never revert to foul language or provocative communication styles. You may express what you feel but never get too personal and use unnecessary ways of portraying what is not you!
- Write clearly and succinctly. Watch out for spelling and grammar mistakes; it will demote your caliber,
- Remember that your posts are public. They can be read by your business partners, your family, your clients and others. So keep it clean, simple and informative,
- Stay on-topic, especially when you’re new to this world. Don’t talk about topics that are not related to your business. Always use examples and references,
- Do not expect others to do your homework for you. If technical expertise is what you’re seeking, there is no shame in asking for help. In addition to this, include details of what attempts you’ve made to solve the problem. It will save time and also show people that you are making an effort towards self-help and self-development,
- Do not post copyrighted material to which you do not own the rights for,
- Never use your children to increase following. They are too young for public exposure and a wrong medium to your business,
- Work on online PR exposure and personal profiling; as it will help you get verified on many digital platforms, increasing your credibility.
By, Zeina Akkawi, PR Specialist & Founder @ PAZ Marketing
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