Do You know Your Friends?

Since the huge boom in popularity of social networking sites, we have been able to reach across the world with incredible ease. We are making friends with more and more people everyday. But, do you really even know them? Do you take the time to get to know a person who follows you or adds you to their friend list?

Some people are out there seeking thousands of so called “friends” and then dumping their product or service on them without even getting to know them. Think of it this way. You get on a plane and the unavoidable boredom that ensues from avoiding whatever horrible movie is playing leaves you with the option of sleeping or making conversation with the person next to you. What is the first thing you do? Introduce yourself? Hi my name is Rich, blah blah blah… Then what? Do you immediately start telling this person about your business and how they should buy whatever you are selling? Hopefully not, more than likely you find a common interest pretty quickly, like why you are headed to your destination. From there the conversation usually steers itself and if you suddenly changed the subject to “buy my stuff” your conversation would probably come to an abrupt end leaving an uncomfortable remainder of the flight.

Instead, the wise person would wait for a signal, some indication that the person with whom you are speaking may be interested in you product or service. At that time you may decide to engage and throw your pitch. Brain sugery right? Hardly, most of us have a fairly tuned social acumen and understand this concept.

So why am I telling you what you already know? Because it seems that when some people get online, their social acumen is inadequate at best. When you are on a social networking site like Twitter, for example and someone decides to follow you, don’t just follow them back give them a reply and get to know them a little before you tweet your product. It’s a simple thing and if you want to be respected, you have to show that you care about your audience. I admit I don’t talk with everyone I follow, but I try to find a common interest and make the effort as often as I possibly can. The social networking arena is no different from “real life” in that it is still real people interacting, just like two people sitting next to each other on a plane. The key to this is to be yourself. Your real friends know you because you don’t put up a front for them. If you pretend to be someone you are not, you will be discovered and when that happens, you’re done.

So, let’s take a trip back to grade school and remember the Golden Rule, shall we? Treat others the way you want to be treated, its that simple. If you treat your friends online as if they were friends you have over to your house, you will gain much more respect than just turning your friend list into a mailing list.

That’s it folks, its that simple, really. Now get out there and make some friends and most of all HAVE FUN!