Social networking has been going crazy over the last two or so years and the main emphasis has been on either providing value for others or self promotion. There are few who can really use these sites to create win win situations.
We all know the win win scenario – you gain something and I gain something. Every bodies happy. With social networking, the idea is to engage with others to gain a network of people who are all interested in similar ideas or products.
By engaging in social networking you are building that network of ‘friends’. For you, there is the chance that they will visit your site, link to your content, or perhaps subscribe, or, if you are selling, buy your products. For the individuals, what is in it for them?
In most social networking sites, everyone’s aim is similar. I want you to visit my site. You most likely want me to visit yours. I want you to subscribe to my newsletter – ditto from you. Of course this would be the perfect win-win scenario – except I don’t want to subscribe to your newsletter. Your content doesn’t particularly interest me, its your links and patronage I want!
Therein lies the problem with most social networking sites. Everyone has a hidden agenda and that is the promotion of their own content. To be really successful at social networking, the people that ‘you’ add to your friends lists should be those that you are happy to interact with. Individuals whose content you can and do subscribe to or whose sites you do visit on a regular basis.
This delivers a group of ‘friends’ who are targeted towards your interests. A win for them. Because you are interested in their content, you are more likely to participate in discussions and follow discussion threads that they have instigated. The end result is that you will build a strong network of related individuals, you will get your backlinks and traffic, and with it perhaps sales.
Adding individuals for one way benefit will only work for a short period of time – then they will turn away and the value of your network will be greatly diminished. Social networking is all about gathering a network of individuals together, all to often we fail to put a real value on that network.
