Please Say Thank You
By: Genevieve Coates
As a start to another wonderful week, you are sitting at your desk thinking about how nice a coffee would be right now when a co-worker walks up and hands you a great article to read that they say you’ll really like. You take the article out of their hands and leave them standing there as you read it over. It’s well written, your favorite style of writing and expresses a viewpoint you strongly believe in. You love it! Holding the article in your hand you stare at your co-worker for a few moments, blink a couple times and than spin back around in your chair without saying a word. They wander off shoulders slumped and feet shuffling the office carpet. Seems a bit strange right? Wouldn’t count on that person bringing you a coffee anytime soon. Most of us in that sort of situation would give some form of feedback or say thank you. Especially if someone provides us with information we appreciate and find valuable. So what in the social space stops us from doing the same when someone emails, tweets or posts a great article or provides other information that we can use?
In almost every language, there is at least one word to mean “thank you”. In day to day life where we send emails, texts, DMs and tweets where every single letter counts toward the message we convey, we often take for granted the impact that a simple “please”, “thank you” and “you’re welcome” can have. If anything, including such a message when your space is limited and your focus is aimed at being so concise, carries more impact than before. If you look at the view point of Gary Vaynerchuk in his book The Thank You Economy, you can see how using our manners in the online space can be tied back to that larger idea of humanizing the brand that we talk about as the way of really connecting with our consumer base. By not just pushing our opinion, or when we do say simple things like please or thank you to go along with it, the people we are connecting with on a daily basis will realize that we are more engaged and appreciative of them being part of our online community.
If we want to make sure that the sharing, learning and education pillars of social media continue and more people want to join us in this space, we need to make sure it’s a healthy environment. So let’s all do our part to contribute to that by taking the time and the precious letters we have to send a little pleasant message in our every day communications.
What’s your favorite way to abbreviate your pleasantries?
Please: Plz, Pls
Thank You: Thanks, TU, 10Q, Thx, TY
You’re Welcome: Welcome, YW
Tags: Gary Vaynerchuk, Social Etiquette, Social Media, The Thank You Economy
Pls, TY, YW
Nice crowdsourcing technique btw
Thanks for reading and contributing!
This article is interesting for a number of reasons. I am not sure that technology is helping us when it comes to our manners. How many emails do we send per day? Do we envision that the person receiving our message is an actual person, for all of our messages? In business, we either become really annoyed if we have to talk to an actual person, or we become annoyed when we have to interact with an automated system. I don't believe that technology is the sole reason on why people are rude, but rather I believe that our society hasn't yet learned how to integrate technology fully into our lives. We can easily learn how to use new technology, but it takes a little time and effort to figure out how something fits into our lives. A good example of my point is Facebook. Most of us know how the system works, however most people don't realize what kind of content is appropriate to post. Look at how many people are dismissed from their jobs each year, all because of a comment or picture.
Hey Richard,
I think you raise a really good point with your comment, and feel like you've touched a very large culture issue we are still working through. For many us, even when we use technology everyday some times it still feels like a hassle and isn't as second nature as other elements of our life. Probably if we reviewed historical stories of other inventions like appliances to the telephone we'd find a similar struggle since after all change is often times a hard thing for us to accept.
Do you feel like there's any steps in this adaptation process that we're missing out on? Is there some way of looking at the bigger picture of how technology can be better incorporate in our lives while maintaining that humanized, manners feel that we've overlooked? Thanks so much for your thoughts!
Great post, Gen! No matter how you communicate saying please and thank you is a must. And always appreciated by those who receive them.
Thanks Colin! Completely agree
Thanks, it's an easy word to say and offer and it is also a word that exalts the recipient. Thanks for your post Genevieve.
Well your Momma's have been telling you all for years to always mind your P's and Q's and wear clean underwear everyday.
So what happened to this generation? Doesn't anyone listen to their Mom anymore?
Sad, even holding the door for someone behind you seems to have past us by. There seems to be a 1 second rule or something, like its gonna kill you to wait for a person as they take 4 steps to the door.
I recently heard mention that there is an actual group or forum trying to bring nice in this world….LOL imagine that.. like its a brand new concept….
yeah well I have worn bell bottom jeans and skinny jeans several times over in my lifetime and each time the new generation thought it was their idea..
Being nice shouldn't be a new concept or the latest fad, it should be automatic!
If you don't believe me, just go ask your mom for her opinion.
Thank-you for posting this interesting topic!
Somebody's Mom
I always get confused by that door situation. If you made eye contact with someone, but they are like 25 paces behind you-do you sit and wait for that extra 30 secs with the door open? Or do you just chalk that up to a loss since you have to get on with your day?