Remember the things we used to hear from our parents when we were kids, “Say please. Say thank you. If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. If you keep making that face it’ll get stuck like that.” Well. maybe you didn’t hear that last one in your house.
Our folks were right. Common courtesy ain’t so common any more. Matter of fact, it’s often as rare as a Kardashian sister using her library card. Common courtesy makes human interaction go so much more smoothly. It’s amazing to see what happens in conversations when we actually say please, thank you and apologize when we need to.
I bring this up because on Social Media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter it’s very common to see people telling you that you should “Like” their Fan Page, or retweet their tweets on Twitter. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I’m being told what to do – and I don’t like that. And I’m guessing that you don’t like being told what to do either.
I believe that these folks would get a much better response if they were to ask politely and use words like please and thank you. Some will read this and think, “Kev, you such a softie. That’s not how the world works.” These are the people who need this message the most. They just don’t know it. And they have all the evidence to prove that they don’t know it.
Remember the things that our parents told us. Say please. Say thank you. Don’t say anything if you don’t have something nice to say. It’s the right thing to do, and ironically, it actually helps you accomplish your goals much faster at the same time. Thank you.