My Social Networking Policy

Posted by Will Fuhrman on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 18:07 | 231 views

Let’s be frank about social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and others.

They’re fantastic! And they’re all a little different. Some are business oriented, others are there to link you with people you know or haven’t connected with in a long time. Twitter is basically a way to quickly stream information and your thoughts as you go. Add all the great tools out there that help you utilize those sites and you have a very powerful way to reach the world.

But here’s a few things people seem to have forgotten along the way. Oh, and my policies are in the big boxes.

1. Be yourself at all times. You are interesting. Your laundry is not.

There’s only so many times you can tell people that you’ve finished doing laundry before people stop caring.  Come on, what do you want? A round of applause?  Listen, if your day includes a mound of laundry I sympathize, but if all you share of your life online is the mundane people will lose interest in you. Share more of who you are not what you do.

2. You don’t have to carry the big lighted sign to build your business online. See point 1 and be yourself. Create interest in your business by creating interest in you.

No one likes to be advertised at. Yes, I used “at” not “to”. Social networking is a great place to grow your business, but the same rule as above applies. If all you do is promote your business or try to sell a product people will turn you off just as they would the television. People are very capable of figuring out if they want to talk business with you or buy a product from you.

I’m a network marketer. I make no secret of that, but that doesn’t mean I’m out there always talking about my business or trying to recruit people. I’m more than my business. I’m a gamer. I’m a nephew. (Ok, starting to sound like a Steve Miller Band song so sing along if you feel so inclined) I’m a friend. I’m a son. Let’s face it, I’m a lot more than just one thing, just as you are. So be you!

3. If you’re going to babble on, at least be interesting in your babbling.

I’m coming across more and more like a broken record when I say that your content is vital. In social networking it’s not about writing a great article or putting out a great video on YouTube. Your content is YOU! Be yourself at all times. Share your thoughts, your ideas and your life.  People are attracted to and follow interesting people.

That brings me to the people on your friends or follower lists. More specifically that brings me to Twitter. I’m a huge fan of Twitter. I believe it to be one of the greatest pieces of the social networking puzzle. I use Twitter every day not only from my computer but also from my Blackberry.  It’s more than just a computer thing. One of the keys to Twitter is generating a strong list of followers and following those that interest you.

4. Follow people you are interested in following. Don’t just follow someone so they’ll follow you back or vice versa.

What’s in a follower?  I see so many people out there advertising programs to get you thousands upon thousands of followers. So I looked at them and found that the majority of success stories show people who are following more people than are following them. One guy in particular has over 87,000 people following him, which is great. The problem is that he’s following 90,000 people.  Another has about 39,000 and is following over 41,000. Yet another has 60,000 followers and is following just a few more than that.

My question: how is it possible to follow so many people? The answer is very simple. It’s not.

If everyone posts just once a day, do you actually have the time to read 30 or 60 or 90 thousand posts on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace or any of the countless social networks out there? That doesn’t include the links in those posts that you may want to check out.

There are two interesting articles on DoshDosh.com about Twitter and followers. The first, “Twitter Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users“, calls it right about the programs designed to get you so many followers and is definately worth a read.  The second, “How to Get More Twitter Followers: Some Methods That Work“, is a great article about getting real followers on Twitter and elsewhere.

You should read both of these articles if you’re serious about making an impact on Twitter and other social networking sites.

5. Never be afraid to speak your mind.

When it comes down to it people are either going to like you or they’re not. So just be real and say what you think.

Those five points pretty well make up my policy on social networking. But two words keep cropping up in the whole thing. Be real!

If you’re interested in more of my ramblings on a daily basis, follow me on Twitter @WillFuhrman.