subject: Start Improving The Quality Of Your Professional Networking Today [print this page] Have you ever wondered why your Twitter following is less than satisfactory? Or why none of your facebook fans comment on your wall? Well I'm going to be honest, most people wonder the same thing. So the good news is: you aren't the only one! The bad news? Well, let's not call it bad news so much as room for improvement.
The basics of social media and professional networking are centered around actually being social. At every party there's a guy who spends his entire night in pursuit of something that will continue to elude him because of the way he goes about approaching women. He hits on every girl at the party and, if he's lucky to end up with even one phone number, it's usually fake or it belongs to her boyfriend. So rather than following his lead, let's learn a lesson from party guy.
There is at least one thing that we all have in common with party guy: we are looking for some sort of advantageous relationship. The difference? Well, let's just say that we know for a fact the sort of relationship we are looking for in social media is a professional, long-lasting and mutually advantageous, meaning that we want our customers to stay with us for the long haul. So how do we accomplish this?
Everyone likes to know that someone is interested in them. Think about every time you get a genuine comment on a blog? It makes you feel good that someone took the time to read it, thought about it on a deeper level, and made the effort to continue the dialogue with you by commenting on it. This is really what you should be reaching out and doing with others in your professional network.
Do you retweet others' great tweets? Do you have an extensive blog roll of others who write fantastic blogs to share with your readers? Do you participate in forums and comment on the blogs you find stimulating?
If not, you definitely should be. Go and find the great content that other people are publishing and continue the dialogue with them. Those contributors will be much more likely to be interested in you as well and you will both benefit from the relationship. Start making time for quality interactions. There is no point in having a Twitter following if none of them are actually interested in what you have to say just as there is no point in following someone if you are not interested in what they have to say.
So now that you know how to behave; go have fun. Enjoy yourself and start to really engage with others. Don't be the party guy. Find those who you are genuinely interested in and get the dialogue going. You may be surprised at the resulting quality of your followers and fans.
