How many social networking sites are you a member of now? There is every chance that if you are active online, then you are just not a member of one site, you are a member of probably 3 or even much, much more.
And if you are an active online social networker, are you building a friend list of thousands or growing organically?
Everyone on the internet may have different strategies and ways of building their brand online – but how many of these people network online the same way that they do offline?
Most social networking sites, such as facebook and LinkedIn, have the facility of letting you add a message when you send out a friend request or invitation to connect (wording depending on which site you are on). Yet, hardly anyone uses it.
If you were are at a face-to-face networking event, would you consider barging in to a group of people and start shoving your business card in to everyone’s hands?
No, probably you wouldn’t. (At least I hope you wouldn’t!)
You would introduce yourself. Probably shake a hand and ask who the other person was. You would start a conversation.
So, why can’t people do this online? It seems too easy to go down a big list of contacts and click the friend request button in the vague hope that the other person will confirm that request quicker than you can wink.
Now, if you are building a mailing list so that you can start sending out sales messages, then you go for it. You may as well start shoving business cards out at networking events and hiring a team of telesales reps to call from a list of yellow pages. You will get the same hit rate!
If you are networking online and using the social networking sites to build your brand, raise awareness of your business and generally reach out to potential clients and customers, then stop and ask yourself how you are inviting people to join your network.
If you would shake someone by the hand and introduce yourself at a face-to-face meeting, do the same online. It may take longer in the short term, but the relationships will be stronger in the long term.
Have you got any tips to making friends on facebook? Leave your comment below
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Tags: Facebook
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Well said Karen! Traditional networking has always been a ’slow burn’ marketing tactic. While the internet may be fast-moving, people still need to build relationships at their own speed.
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