How to sound like a real person in social media

I really shouldn't have to say this after all these years of social media -- blogging, tweeting, facebooking, etc. But I'll say it anyway.

Please, try to sound like a human being.

I don't want to read 15 tweets from you on Twitter than sound canned. I want to hear from the REAL you in REAL language on Twitter. That's why I go there.

I am sitting at my desk in my house in Arlington, MA. I've got the broom, the vacuum and the mop leaning against the stove in the kitchen downstairs, waiting for me, because I'm going to do a serious floor washing after I finish here. Sand from the roads after the snowy winter, mud from the spring rains, even old bits of leaves from last fall, has been tracked in the back door onto my kitchen floor, so it needs a full sweep, then a vacuum, then a on-my-hands-and-knees scrubbing.

I am a real person with a real kitchen floor I'm planning to scrub today. When I talk to you, it's really me talking. Later, when I talk on Twitter, it will be me with slightly wet knees in my blue jeans, my hair jammed up and out of the way in some baseball cap, just the real me, smelling of bleach and Mr. Clean after scrubbing my floor.

That's all I ask, just be real out there. Tell us what you are doing. Tell us how you are feeling. Let us get up close and personal. It's not a reality SHOW we want, we want reality.

*photo credit: Jacqueline Tinney, Flickr