Conversation relevance will keep you out of trouble as well as expand your reputation.
Never jump into a conversation thinking a joke is acceptable, when in fact, it may be way wrong.
A friend of mine posted this question on Facebook, “Do you feel that Home Schooling is better than Public School? If so why or why not.”
It’s important to know this friend regularly posts questions, many being satirical or just down right funny. This morning the post was not funny, and I failed to see this.
I saw his post on my iPhone and immediately responded with, “A good ole fashion schoolin is important anytime, anywhere, regardless of in ‘da home or by ‘da govmnt.”
Fortunately for me within a few minutes I got a Facebook notification that my Friend commented on the post, “Thanks everyone for your feedback. This has a been a very beneficial discussion.”
A group of his followers had jumped into the thread and the discussion turned serious, to some degree a little contentious. Because I ignored the comments I jumped into a serious conversation with a joke. Dang, what a fool. Big time #SocialMediaFail on my part.
I immediately deleted my comment. Yes, I know that 50+ people had seen what I said, especially the 5 people who got deep into a serious conversation. However, deleting my comment was the first step to correcting my mistake.
My next step was to get into the conversation with a relevant comment. I offered my opinion of home school and responded to another in the thread regarding his comment.
Commenting on posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc is an important part of what I call Engaging on Social Media. However, just like walking up to a group of people, figure out what the conversation is and where it has gone before you jump in. Relevance – it’s important in real life as well as in a social media conversation.
One way to do this on social media is to never comment on a post that has engagement until you have read some of the other comments. Not just the first one or the last one, but most of them. If you don’t have the time to read them all, don’t comment at all. Better to not be in the conversation than to be in the conversation wrong. (Remember this Teddy)
Have you ever jumped into a conversation and realized that you were saying the wrong things?