Don't be a social spam artist.

I’m a social whore.

I remember when I first got on Facebook.com, back when it was first introduced for high school students, and I realized that I could get the scoop on people from school even when I was out of school. I found all the people I knew and did a little detective work and basically became a creeper. A couple years later I joined twitter.com and thought it to be nothing more than Facebook minus all the cool things. It was just status updates... It was sort of boring. Then I got my first @jleff. I realized that someone was listening to me. That was something I never felt with Facebook. I felt like I was contributing to a larger conversation.

Facebook was, to me, more of just a way to show off pictures and say witty one liners or quote obscure band lyrics that make me seem deep. Twitter on the other hand felt more personal. What I say and do is shared with a smaller number of people it feels more like I have relationships with people I’ve never met. I want to know what they are up to. I want to know if they find interesting things in the news. The biggest thing I found in Twitter was that it didn’t have all the stupid games and quizzes. So I dropped my Facebook and haven’t looked back.

However, I keep seeing more and more companies come to social networks hoping to jump on the wave. They don’t seem to really have a purpose except to eavesdrop on people talking about their company and promote their products. That doesn’t seem all that social to me. It might be nice to know when @amwaygrandplaza is having a great deal on their rooms but if someone came up to me on the street and just tried to sell me something I would quickly walk away.

Be a man/woman of the people.

It is hard for companies to figure out how to use social networks since this is a relatively new concept to them. I think the idea of sales in general has always been a little uncomfortable: going up to friends or strangers and trying to get them to buy your product. Companies got used to making TV ads and magazine ads and posters/fliers and even website and web ads but trying to have a conversation with people?! It makes even the most personable companies feel a little uncomfortable.

If I were to give any advice to companies it would be: don’t worry about selling things. I don’t consider this a venue to get new buyers. Typically if you don’t have any prior or present interest in a company you wouldn’t friend/follow them anyway. This is a place to keep your present customers happy and get them to discuss you with their followers.

For example: @BiggbyDwtnGR is a coffee shop in downtown Grand Rapids. This shop has a fair amount of regulars and furthermore followers on their Twitter page. While they do tell people about some of their promotions they do more than that. They are a part of the larger Grand Rapids twitter community. They even go so far as to discuss one employee having a baby! (I do not recommend this for all companies) What they are doing is creating a relationship with those customers even when it has nothing to do with coffee. One of their followers asked when Oberon hits the taps and @BiggbyDwtnGR replied with “It’s today.” While that is just a small example it shows that they are not just in it to promote their products. This sort of relationship goes beyond just selling products it gets down to just being a social person.

How many people actually follow the person who tweets, “Find out how I made a thousand dollars today with (insert spam link)”? What is different between them and @toyotascionGR tweeting, “2009 Rav4, like new - factory warranty and Certified: (insert spam link)”? Both might get a couple of clicks but will probably not have the intended result. This might be why they only have 11 followers. However, if @toyotascionGR were to host a “tinychat” where they chatted with their customers and potential customers about the problems going on with Toyota vehicles they might get some recognition. They might not get many people out to that first chat but as word spreads to the community that they are really interested in keeping people safe and keeping their customers informed they might get that reputation. This example may be poorly thought out since I know nothing about the company or how the company is operated, but just because Twitter is out there doesn’t mean people care what you have to tweet.

What I’m saying.

Corporations in their nature seem very “unhuman” even though by law they pretty much are humans. Maybe they should start acting like one. If companies started to try and talk to people like they were people they might actually get somewhere. This doesn’t mean bombard everyone who mentions your name with a promotional comment. This means be a friend to those who follow you. Reach out to people to gain more followers. When I get a new follower I typically check out what they are saying to see if it is worth following. Be worth following. Don’t be an advertisement be a person.