Ahhhh, the Social Web. Does anything else hold such promise these days? Does anything else have such potential? Anything have more people using it … and doing so in a totally ineffective way?
What got me thinking about these questions was this: I’ve recently seen a massive influx of people from my past business life, all of whom have heard the Social Media Gospel and set about joining the proverbial conversation.
One thing I’ve noticed — on Facebook, in particular and, to a lesser extent, Twitter (and I’m not talking about the bots, here) — is how positively spammy people can be! One “friend” of mine updates his status multiple times daily with various and sundry pitches touting his services, posts links to nothing but his own website and talks about 100% of nothing else. Truth be told, it’s getting a little tiresome (and this is a guy I’ve known for YEARS).
When you link to someone on Facebook, you become their FRIEND, not their salesperson. The idea is to develop a relationship. To build on a connection more personal than “BUY MY STUFF!” I am certainly interested in the business endeavors of my friends, but if all I’m getting is sell, sell, SELL … well, I’ll tune out anyone doing that in pretty short order.
Don’t be that guy.
If you want to engage me, do so by telling me about something cool going on in your community. A great restaurant you went to. Post a funny or enlightening video. Talk TO me, not AT me. Once you’ve started doing that, toss in a nugget or two about your business. I promise, I’ll listen. When you’re treating me as your friend, I’m much more likely to be receptive.
Be THAT guy.
