Social media: it is important not to invade others’ space

In the “real” world, acceptable social behaviour is typically defined by a set of conventions that most people learn from childhood onwards.

In most cultures, it is considered discourteous to interrupt a conversation between strangers without introducing yourself, distinctly impolite to impose a new topic of conversation on that group and downright boorish to talk about one’s self without listening to what others have to say.

In the online world of social networks, businesses flout these rules all the time – but the repercussions are just the same, warns Peter Walshe, global BrandZ director at Millward Brown: “They either get laughed at or frozen out.”