You may have heard me say that the internet is a 24/7 networking opportunity. It offers you a chance to make real, authentic connections on Social Media. So how’s your Social Media going? Here are some questions for you to use to evaluate your experience: When you go to your Facebook profile, do you really have the intention of making an authentic connection? Or are you on social media just to see who’s doing what? Or are you on social media just to tell everyone what you are up to, to get them to your next event or to buy your product or service? Do you feel like everyone is just putting out their stuff and not caring about yours? Do you feel invisible?
What is the missing ingredient to your social media success?
The missing ingredient to your social media success might be the caring. Maybe you are doing the LIKE, Comment and Share, but do you CARE ? I mean do you really care? Are you just doing social media because you feel like you have to? Maybe you have the dreaded syndrome called FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). You are lurking on social media because you don’t want to miss out on…well I’m not sure what?? Or maybe you really do care about people on social media but you just don’t know what to do, how to show that you care. You are doing “random acts of social media” with no real plan or results.
What’s missing in your social media is the caring. With the caring comes the plan. I’m reminded of the quote by Zig Ziglar: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” That’s true for me. I connect with people with whom I feel an authentic connection. I’m turned off by people who are constantly trying to sell something to me on social media, even if it’s free, when they have never taken the slightest interest in who I am. Sometimes someone will send me a friend request and less than a minute after I accept the request, they will send me a private message attempting to sell me something. It makes me want to unfriend them one minute after that!
How do you show that you CARE, really make those authentic connections?
Many of my clients that I am coaching with their social media ask me, “How do I make those authentic connections?”
Here is my 4 step process of authentically caring on social media:
CARE=Connect, Acknowledge, Respond, Engage
Let’s say I meet someone at a networking event or at a marketing speech. Here’s how it might look:
- Connect: Friend on Facebook, Connect on LinkedIn, Follow on Twitter, etc.
- Acknowledge: Mention on their page, how great it was to meet them, interact, read their content, comment on their content.
- Respond: However they respond to you, respond back, join in the conversation authentically.
- Engage: Send a private message on FB to invite them to another event you may be attending, share their content, start a discussion, invite them for coffee or tea, on Skype or in-person.
Continue to remain engaged with the people with whom you resonate. Continue to remain engaged in the networking opportunity the social media offers you!
If you would like to improve your social media results, try this next time you start to post on Facebook: Place your hand on your heart. Take a breath in and exhale. Relax. Start reading people’s posts. Go into your heart and let yourself be guided to the person you want to connect with. Connect on social media the same as if you were connecting in person. Become curious, caring about them, take the time to let them know you care. Imagine if we were all using social media to make real connections, to have real conversations, to create real transformation in the world!