FINE! Don’t Join My Social Media Company Fanpage! I’ll Delete You as a Friend Then.
April 19, 2010
A Real Example of How NOT to Social Network
Had an incredibly interesting situation happen last week that is just too good of an example to share about what proper social networking does not look like. I am going to recount the actual scenario that occurred with a real Facebook “new friend”, but will change any individual or company names so as not to embarrass anyone. It is my sincere desire to educate and not make fun. This is how NOT to do social media marketing.
About a week ago I friended an “industry” person on Facebook. When I say industry person, I mean someone touting themselves as a Partner with a social media marketing company in the USA. They had some 244 friends, and a handful that were mutual friends of mine already.
Once connected with this individual, they immediately (same day) sent me an invite to join their company fanpage. Without any previous contact and again right after becoming “friends”. No hello, no engagement, no valuable posts in their feed or at the least an inbox message welcoming me, etc., just an invite to join their fanpage.
I decided to take a look at the page and it was filled with YouTube video posts of mostly funny stuff, which isn’t really a negative. At the time there were some 46 or so fans. The only communication or engagement was a comment by this individual, commenting how much they liked the companies new website, etc.
I decided at this point, I would ignore the request since the company is in a different state and I really had no relationship established with them at this point. You see, when I fan a brand or company it is real. I don’t throw my fanning around like some do.
What happened over the next 3 days blew me away. I received TWO MORE invites from this person to join their page AGAIN. This seemed quite excessive to me and given my personality I decided to send them an inbox message. My intent with this message was to open communication in the hopes that they might engage with me, as well as rethink their strategy to something that will be much more effective. Following is exactly what I sent.
The message I sent:
Robert M. Caruso April 16 at 11:13am
(Friend Name Removed),
Love ya, but this is the 3rd suggestion you have sent me for your fanpage. I appreciate the invite, but in less than a week to have that many is a bit much. Not very social.
Robert
For a couple days I didn’t think anything more about it. Later, remembering the situation, I realized that I received no response. I did not recall the persons name, so I went back into my messages and clicked to the sent folder and found the message. I clicked to go to the individuals profile to discover that they had “un-friended” me.
Three things to take away from this situation…
1) Don’t hammer people with you or your clients fanpage invites.
2) Engage and connect a little bit before pushing them to fan your brand/company.
3) There is no room for negative anti-social reactions in Social Media.
I’m just sayin’
By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo
Filed in facebook, facebook fans, friending a brand, social marketing, social media, social media marketing, social network, social networking
Tags: facebook fans, Fan, social media, social networking
April 19, 2010 at 3:12 pm
I’ve had similar happen so it’s not a huge surprise. There are those who are still trying to navigate their way around the social space. But it’s distressing that these same people are advising companies on their social strategy.
Forced “fanship” is not true connection by any sense of the word.
April 19, 2010 at 3:14 pm
The last two sentences of your comments are the gems Lucretia. Advising and pushing, given their inability to walk yet.
Great input!
April 19, 2010 at 6:22 pm
People are strange, interacting via social media as well as in real life. Two examples:
-I start following someone on Twitter. Within the first week, the person posts something like “I like “X” place (a restaurant), and here is a link to their website. I click the link, and the website is under construction.
I either reply via Twitter or a PM in Twitter that the website is down, and what the person recommends from this restaurant. The response I get is I didn’t know that the website was down. No problem, but I follow up with hey what do you recommend on the menu.
I never hear back. A week or so goes by, and I can’t find this person in the feeds that I follow. I do a search and find the person again, and I try to follow them again, figuring it must be an error on my part. The person has now blocked me. Strange behavior but whatever.
A second example of strange behavior is by a person who touts themselves as a master communicator, and consults with people how to communicate better. The person also has written books about a passion of theirs.
When I find out that this person is on Twitter, I follow them. They follow me in short order. I send a series (three at one time) PMs to this person, telling them how much I enjoy their books and wanting info about future book tours.
I never hear boo back. This was two plus months ago.
It seems like a lot of people hold themselves out as social media experts, but their lack of timely communication is puzzling. It is kind of like the dot com boom, when everyone was building websites, but only a few knew what they were doing.
April 19, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Duke,
You got it correct. There is a ton of this going on. But as one of my mentors taught me, “Most people/companies succeed in spite of themselves, not because of themselves.” Unfortunately this is very true.
The good news is that Social Media, Twitter and even Facebook for that matter is new in the “non-tech” time-frame of things. So there is hope that the marketplace will flesh out over time and those that deal this way in an industry with “Social” in its name will be moved into another line of work. Mixed Martial Arts maybe.
Thanx for connecting!
Robert
April 21, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Weird. I am right now blogging about this very issue, specifically point #2. I get tons of invites to be a fan, join a group or (gasp) sign a petition. I worked as a photojournalist for 10+ years and know on-line petitions aren’t legal. Additionally, I am too honest to fan a so-so photographer or even a local popular beer I can’t choke down.
I guess people don’t realize that old-school sales tactics don’t work anymore.
April 21, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Very true Happy… They don’t realize what social really is. It’s really earned relationships, just like off line. Trust building, developing connections and helping others.