McDonald's Rules of Personal Connection Behavior

By Dennis D. McDonald

Members of the Social Media Collective are blogging about Twitter. To see what I mean, go to the Collective’s front page and search for “twitter” or use this Social Media Collective Search Engine I set up using Google’s custom search service. (I’ve already blogged about the topic here.)

This Twitter discussion got me to thinking about the decisions we make about connecting with others during the day. Choices are involved. On my own, for example, I’ve cut back on email newsletters and I’ve become very choosy about accepting more invitations to join new social networks where I will have to create another profile, maintain another password, etc. etc. Some have called this social network fatigue.

I’ve come up with some “rules” about personal connection behavior to begin understanding this.  I don’t have any data to back this up, I’m just tossing these rules out to get a discussion going (use the comment feature below if you would like to add your own thoughts):

McDonald’s Rules of Personal Connection Behavior

1. There are only 24 hours in a day.
2. Some of these hours are devoted to work and some to play.
3. During these hours we make decisions about connecting with others and about allowing others to connect with us.
4. How we make these connections are driven both by (a) our willingness to connect with others and by (b) the identities of the people we are willing to connect with.

Comments

[Wade Rockett]

A good start! Here are some of my ideas for rules:

There are only 24 hours in a day, so honor your energy (TM Merlin Mann) and respect the time and energy of others.

People are not baseball cards, to be collected via social networking sites. Focus on creating and maintaining meaningful, relevant connections.

The meaning and relevance of some connections might only emerge over time and in ways that you don't expect. Be creative with your network.

[adam]

is it true that if a customer sings the macdonalds theme tune does the mcdonlads employee have to say 'im loving it'?

[Dennis D. McDonald]

No, Adam, that is not true, but I have heard that employees who consistently spell the name of the company incorrectly are drawn and quartered.

[David Herrera]

As a constant customer of Mc Donald’s for 3 years and spent 150 + dollars at the Mc Donald’s on Devonshire and Lancaster in Salem, Oregon the manager tells me I cannot step outside to have a cigarette with or without my coffee and expect to get a refill after returning.
This manager wrote the coffee rules on the outside on door, after the fact of his belittling me before other customers. I never knew there was a rule of such. Without customer rules posted outside of Mc Donald’s restaurants why would he have the right to say anything to me? I feel saving coffee is a loss on their part. Mc Donald’s restaurants should have all of the rules posted at each store at every door so customers can abide to the rules.