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ABC’s of Successful Social Networking

Too often when people join a social network they sit back and wait for the online world to beat a path to their profile page. This approach is doomed to failure.

To be successful in social networking we need to be proactive. The following ABCs of Successful Social Networking will give you an easy-to-follow track to run on.

A: Add Friends

The success of your social networking efforts depends on the number of people in your network and the quality of the relationships you have with them.

It’s often been said that it’s who you know that determines your success. Not true. It’s who knows you and recognizes the value you bring to the table that will determine your success in business and in life.

Here are five suggestions that you can use to maximize your effectiveness:

Meet people on social sites such as Facebook by searching the directory, groups, and forums for people who share similar interests and match your picture of the people you are looking to meet.

Look for people whose pictures are warm, friendly, and professional. Then send them a friend request.

Send out at least ten friend requests a day. That would be 50 a week. If you only have a 50% acceptance rate, you would be adding 25 online friends a week.

Always include a brief note with your friend requests. This will improve your acceptance rate by 50% or more.

When someone accepts your friend request, always send a thank you message and begin the relationship-building process.

B: Be Visible

Keep your name and profile in the minds of your online connections. Some ways you can do this are:

• Post status updates
• Comment on your friends’ status updates
• Chat with friends who are online
• Create a business page
• Post often on Twitter

The key is to be consistent. Allocate 15 to 30 minutes a day to creating visibility.

C: Create Value

Just being visible is not enough. You need to create value for the people on your network.

Establish yourself as a competent and personable person by posting tips, ideas, motivational quotes, and articles.

Look for ways to help.

Introduce friends who may add value to each other. Watch your friend’s status updates and respond to their wall postings and tweets. Look for items that allow you to recognize, and uplift these people.

Power Tip:

I was listening to a call by Doug Firebaugh and he gave a suggestion that sums up the real secret to great relationships. He called it the Million Dollar Idea. “Make every person you meet, feel like a million dollars”. I like to carry this one step further by helping every person feel better about themselves. I want my friends to say “I like me better when I’m with you”.

That sums up the ABC’s of Successful Social Networking, nothing new, just practical common sense ideas that you can use right now. But, then again, common sense is not always common.