A friend and I were discussing social media last night and how to share social media with marketers in our company.  What is social media?  How can they use social media to grow their business?  We started talking about the popular “Social media is like a party” analogy, and then it struck me: social media is exactly like real life, just faster and more intense.

If social media is exactly like real life, then I should behave myself just like I do in real life.  It’s not OK for me to try and sell every person I meet in life, so why is it OK on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace?  The answer is it’s not OK, but plenty of people do it. I know I’ve been guilty.

My best advice to new marketers in any company, and to myself, is to follow real life rules when you take the social media plunge.  The rules that I learned in kindergarten—to share, to play fair, say I’m sorry, to live a balanced life—they all apply online.  And if “living” online is a faster and more intense version of real life, those rules become even more important.

Before you tweet, before you post that Facebook update, before you create a profile on MySpace or join a network on Ning, think about those important life lessons you learned in kindergarten.  Follow them and you’ll be highly successful.  Ignore them at your peril.

Looking for a great way to get started with social networking? Created yourself a Twitter account and dive in by participating in “follow Friday!“