Today’s post comes courtesy of Jessica Mabe, MindLeaders ThirdForce Public Sector Manager, who thinks about best practice for social media etiquette at a gathering of public sector digital devotees
Last month I attended the Public Sector Digital Strategies Convention 2011. This is more surprising than it sounds, as the event almost fell through when the company organising it ceased trading a week before. However, the public sector digital enthusiasts weren’t to be held back by such a minor detail and impressively undertook to organise it themselves. The next week, as if the convention had been Tweeted back to life, delegates sat at the Cisco Innovation Centre in Greenwich hearing about how the public sector was synching-up to social media, deliberating digital communications and listening to some wisdom about successful web design.
How times have changed. Until the beginning of this year, I believed that understanding ‘digital’ meant knowing your way around computers and the internet. This year I woke up to how behind I really was. I was introduced to the true value of using social networking to reach hundreds of people in my field and share my knowledge and experience.
But digital strategy and social media were more than just the topic of discussion. Looking around the room, I saw that 80% of the delegates were tapping away at laptops, iPads or smartphones. My decidedly uninteractive pen and paper suddenly seemed inadequate.
During the coffee-break I checked my Twitter account, and I could not believe the number of Tweets that had been sent during the presentation. Obviously, I was missing out on something! So I put down my pen and, phone in hand, Tweeted away for the rest of the afternoon. I couldn’t help but wonder whether this was acceptable behaviour. Should everyone really be looking down at their phones and laptops whilst someone is giving a presentation? Is eye-contact an outmoded 20th century concept? I’m not fully convinced we’ve established the right etiquette yet.
As anyone following Twitter on the day would know, the etiquette of using social media and other types of digital technology in the workplace actually came up for debate. The room was full of passionate individuals fighting to introduce these new technologies into the workplace who faced questions about social media etiquette not only from management but also from many members of staff. What is the best practice? When should this be used? Should it be part of your day job? Who should control what is being said?
The answers to these questions within public sector are still to be found. The central message I took away from the day is that policies will have to respond to behavioural change which is emerging in all areas of organisations. In a fast-growing digital world, how do we redefine being polite?
Hi Jessica
I think you raise a good point here and it’s not just public sector who are facing these challenges. Social Media has evolved so quickly that there are very few businesses that are fully comfortable with their position on it. There is the natural balance of fear between not wanting to miss out on it as a marketing, sharing, listening tool that can offer great benefits to businesses, and worrying that it is taking over people’s lives to the extent that they question whether any work is actually getting done! As it’s all fairly new there is no great precedent either and often media stories are unfairly negative just adding to the confusion.
To me there is always a strong sense of manners, being polite and common sense which should prevail in all area of communication and relations with each other. In the same way that I would put down my phone or turn away from a book or the TV when someone is talking to me, I would also think it impolite to be using online communications during a presentation. This doesn’t come from not recognising the value of sharing what’s being said, rather having respect for the effort and commitment the speaker has put into sharing something with the audience and my strong belief in treating people as I’d like to be treated.
So, your questions and thoughts are so very valid and the bottom line is that whichever way communications and technology evolve the standards of treating people with respect and politeness should remain. We can never get true value from what we are being told when constantly distracted by other things.
Good luck with your endeavours into this new era and asking these questions, to me show a very positive approach
Good to read your post, it really is pretty amazing when you first experience this shift isn’t it.
As a presenter I really don’t care about eye contact, that doesn’t really tell me anything, they might be looking but they could quite easily be planning dinner or working out who they are going to visit next. If, however, I can refer to the digital backchannel and see that points I have raised have been tweeted, retweeted and commented on I have real feedback and evidence of engagement.
I also take issue with the digital distraction argument. Taking notes on paper is ok but contributing to an online dialogue is not? Any, or rather most, presentations have a limited number of points to make, they inevitably, and necessarily, contain slides or branches that act as a vehicle to deliver those limited number of points. People can filter out the ‘story’ and concentrate on the key points. If I see those points tweeted I know they have risen above the noise: I like that!
I consider respecting me as a presenter is clearly demonstrated by discussing the points I raise, not necessarily by fixing me throughout the event with a flawless steely gaze.
I can take steps to exploit the backchannel if I wish to; auto-tweeting during my presentation, providing a Wallwisher or an interactive mind map. I can’t do that with the private thoughts of the audience.
So please, feel free to take out your devices and tweet away. I would even welcome the occasional novelty ringtone. We are not here to massage my needs as a presenter, we are here to advance thinking in my chosen subject. That will always be improved with a conversation as opposed to a one-way presentation.
Thank you for both your comments. I have to say, I am still making up my mind around social media etiquette and the use of technology whilst sitting through presentations. Maybe it is time to adopt a happy medium which respects the presenter and the needs of the audience – maintaining some eye contact whilst taking notes, tweeting or typing away during a presentation so basic manners are not fully forgotten.
However, I have to agree that your point about the backchannel is a valid and important one. Along with feedback for the presenter, live tweets through a presentation are also a new window to sharing thoughts with peers that you might not be able to approach, opening discussions that time allocation won’t allow, or even putting forward controversial ideas. It is an exciting time with all the new technology available and I’m interested to see how behaviours will continue to change in the future.