SOCIAL MEDIA–DON’T RUN AWAY YOUR FRIENDS

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Have you ever gone out on a Saturday night to a party to get away from work and all its pressures—only to be followed around by some insensitive jerk whose determined to discuss business whether you want to or not?  Does this make you like him?  Even more importantly, will this lead you to do business with him?

That is how some people act with social media.

I have a business and Facebook friend who was unemployed for some time.  When he finally landed a job, he invited me to join his company Facebook page.  I had no interest, so I ignored his request.  That didn’t stop him from posting all his business banter on his personal Facebook page.

Facebook is a social site.  Its primary purpose is not business. Now I didn’t say you couldn’t do business, but it must be kept to a minimum.   I went to my friend’s Facebook page & noted he had ten posts—eight of them were business related.  The other two were what he had for lunch & dinner.  Those percentages are backwards.

His message isn’t going to be read.  Many of his friends will hide his posts or pull him out of their networks.  They certainly aren’t going to want to do business with him.

Example number two.  There is a local business that discovered LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is primarily a business platform.  However, the owners of this business determined they want to use LinkedIn to send blast e-mails about what’s good about their company.

That is not how LinkedIn was intended.  In fact, LinkedIn designed its platform so it takes a great deal of work to send out mass messages.

As I was reviewing Twitter a few minutes ago, I noticed a tweet from an unhappy recipient that explained the risks of acting badly with social media.  It said, “FYI—if you choose to follow me 4 times & I don’t follow back, the 5^th try’s not going to do it.  You’re not interesting & I’m happy with my insurance.”

This is David Sher, your WeMentor Guy saying it’s not what you know, but whOO you know.