Do Not Abuse Social Networking
by Marsha Maung
Jan 15th, 2009
The first time I read about ‘web 2.0’, something sort of popped inside of my head! I went like ‘Whoa! This would be so cool as a marketing tool. Imagine, I can make all kinds of friends there and they would all have access to all the stuff that I do, my life, my writing, my advertisements, my graphic design works, my kids, my dog, the stuff I knit…..awesome!’
And I bet some of you thought the same thing too, huh?
Well, here’s the thing about social networking. It’s meant to be a tool but a subtle one. It is way to easy to abuse the whole concept of social networking for the purpose of business promotion that many have pissed off more customers than they have attracted them. Social networking works best when you promote subtly and let the people within your social network CHOOSE whether they want to have a look at what you have instead of badgering them left, right and center about your product, your seminars, your book, services, etc.
What prompted this article is the fact I’ve been badgered. On Facebook, one of the unquestionably effective and popular social networking sites on the planet right now, I’ve joined groups and have went on to share stuff with others too….just in case but I stop at hard-selling to them.
So, I saw some groups and one of them was (I don’t want to bad-mouth people) a group for women with an interest in online marketing. It’s like ‘Hey, yeah! That’s me!’ I joined and the next thing I know, every other day (everyday, in fact), I would receive a private message from the moderator or creator of that Facebook group urging me to join her teleseminar. I went through one of the links, thought for a bit, and said ‘Nah, don’t think so. I think I know all those stuff already’ and declined the invitation.
The messages kept coming…one after another, telling me that if I didn’t join, I would regret it for the rest of my life. This type of social networking marketing method has the potential of drawing in customers the same way I would suddenly find a house elf in my garden (which I don’t have one!)
Social networking should never be taken to the extreme. You’re trying to pull your customers instead of pushing them into a corner. And when you push them too far off into a corner, they’re going to shut the door on you.
The same way I shut the door in the face of that social networking group site. I sent a personal message to her along the lines of ‘You’re annoying me to bits’ and then quit the group.
So, if you’re keen on exploring social networking, bear in mind, posting links, writing notes on Facebook, sharing experiences, joining groups, writing blogs, changing your ‘status’, sharing images/photos….they work. Harassing the hell out of your potential customers is NOT going to.
Don’t abuse social networking marketing because it gives the rest of us a bad name.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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Listen up! I am a very nice person, if you think this article is neat and you'd like to publish it in your website, all's cool with me but with one condition. Only one and from the bottom of my heart, I wish that you would, in all sincerity, allow me my one single wish....to place the following codes into the your website at the END OF THE ARTICLE. It's not going to disrupt much, so please do it?
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<b>Marsha Maung</b> is a Malaysian-based <a href="http://www.marshamaung.com" target="_blank">freelance writer</a> with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her <a href="http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com" target="_blank">blog</a> for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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