Randi Zuckerberg feels your social media pain.
Is there a polite way to de-friend? How deeply should you Google your Match.com date? And can you really pull off emojis in work emails?
Zuckerberg’s been navigating the murky new media waters since her time as an early executive at Facebook. She created the online community Dot Complicated to deliver a dose of netiquette to those in need.
What started as a small newsletter has grown to include two New York Times best-selling books, Today show appearances, and, as of this week, a brand new Sirius radio show. Zuckerberg hosts the hour-long weekly Sirius program to help listeners untangle their modern wired (and wireless) lives. Through expert guests, insider info and curated picks for apps and gadgets, Zuckerberg promises to make savvy, early adopters out of even the most tech-phobic luddites.
Notable Quote
“Let’s stop overusing #blessed, everyone!” -@randizuckerbergTweet This!
We caught up with Zuckerberg at a recent New York City event. The media pioneer dished on web manners, online shopping, and if her brother, Mark, is a good uncle.
Where do you shop?
Anthropologie is one of my go-tos. I love Aritizia. DVF is another go-to.
How about online?
Have you heard of ModCloth.com? That is one of my favorite places to shop online. I love the pun titles of all the products. I want that job—whoever’s job it is to come up with those titles, they’re so great!
RueLaLa.com is one of my favorites too. I had such a problem with Rue La La! At one point, I had to have the boxes go to my mom’s house!
Amazon.com is one of my favorites because when it arrives, it’s not obviously clothing. It could just be toilet paper! Who knows!
What’s the major social media faux pas you’ve been seeing lately?
That one that I’ve been seeing a lot recently is people using #blessed when they’re really just trying to brag about their lives. They’re like, “Sunset in Tahiti! #blessed!” but really, what they want to be saying is “I’m in Tahiti and you’re not!” Let’s stop overusing #blessed, everyone!
Is Mark a good uncle?
Oh yeah, he’s a great uncle. All my siblings are. I have two other sisters too, we’re a very close family.
How did you become a netiquette expert?
I worked at Facebook for so many years, but I didn’t come from a tech background, I came from a marketing background so I like to think that I can speak to the world of technology from an “every woman” sort of way instead of a “geeky-coder-engineer” way. I love speaking to women about how tech and gadgets can make their lives better instead of more complicated.
What are you working on right now that you’re excited about?
I’ve been really excited about how the Dot Complicated brand has grown. It started about a year and a half ago as a newsletter I sent it out for fun because I noticed that a lot of the same questions about netiquette were about, “What are the coolest apps that you’re seeing?” So I just was sending out this newsletter and then all of the sudden, a year and a half later, it’s become two books and Today show segments and I actually have my own talk radio show that’s launching!
Tell us about the radio show.
It’ll actually be more of this approachable, fun look at technology so kind of tech and lifestyle. We’ll be talking about everything from tech and fashion around Fashion Week and tech and parenting. A lot of fun stuff and lots of good guests. It’ll be a little more mainstream than you would usually expect from a technology show.