Book Review: Manners in Emily Post's Digital World: Living Well Online

The Emily Post Institute, the authority on all things etiquette, has just published an up-to-the-minute guide called Manners in Emily Post’s Digital World: Living Well Online. In keeping with the times, it’s the first-ever e-book to come out of the organization. The book’s author, Daniel Post Senning, has been at the helm of technology at the Emily Post Institute for years, building their first website, figuring out analytics and e-newsletters, and a WordPress blog to answer etiquette questions from the general public, among other things.

In a relatively short book, Senning covers a lot of ground. The book effectively targets the social media/mobile device novice as well as the more experienced user. It suggests the right way to coexist with technology as well as the people you interact with offline: family, friends, coworkers and even store clerks. It discusses in-depth the circumstances under which it’s acceptable to play a game on your mobile phone in public (sometimes OK), take a phone call in a public bathroom (never OK), friend an ex or a coworker online (sometimes OK), or stir up trouble in a chatroom or forum (never OK) .

The book outlines the wonderful advantages of touting your business on Facebook and other social media platforms. It gives advice on determining a website’s credibility. It suggests ways you and your family members can make rules about turning off mobile devices in favor of quality time together.

Perhaps the most power takeaway from the book appears in Chapter 4: Facebook: “You can always delete something you decide you don’t want on your wall [or on Twitter, in an email, on a dating profile, etc.], but you can’t take back the impression it made while it was visible.”

You can follow the Emily Post Institute on Twitter @EmilyPostInst and see what others are tweeting about with the #etiquette hashtag.

Business Networking and Sex...not what you think

It's the Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus for the business world. Data from 12,000 surveyed business people was compiled to show the differences between men and women when it comes to their approach to business networking. Three authors worked together to write it: Ivan Misner, who compiled the survey results, Hazel Walker representing the female perspective and Frank J. De Raffele Jr. with the male perspective.

I enjoyed Business Networking and Sex...not what you think more than I do some business books because of both the practical information that I can use as I network. Also, I had the opportunity through my work with Write Choice Services to interview Ivan Misner on Write Here, Write Now, a Business Radio X show in Atlanta, around the time the book was published last year. Then, last month I attended a large networking event in Atlanta where Hazel Walker was one of the featured speakers. A book always means more if you get a chance to hear from the author.

The bottom line of the book shouldn't surprise anyone: women like to form relationships with those they do business with while men just like to jump right in and strike a deal (similar to the dating world, yes?). The book offers instance after instance of research to back up all the findings, but also offers ways women and men can meet each other in the middle, and anticipate what business associates from the other gender will expect.