Always tell the truth about yourself. Social networks
are experiential. You need to jump in and experience it. If you are serious
about establishing a social internet presence and networking, you have to be
prepared to tell the truth about yourself if you want to connect with people on
a real level. Using social media tools helps to establish your professional
background but there’s a person that accompanies that background too.
Show yourself. If not your face then why not
something about you? I don’t trust a person who wants to connect with me and
doesn’t have a profile picture instead of the default photos they use on most
social networking sites. And I’m not alone.
Stop cramming your business opportunities down my throat. Give it a
rest. I get it. I really do get it. Quit talking about what you do and tell me
about yourself. What books and articles are you reading? What television shows
or movies do you like? Do you have a family? Pets? What do you do when you aren’t
working? Trust me, I am not going to be more interested in your work stuff if
you are always yapping about it and I’m fairly certain no one else will either.
Be as generous and positive and as supportive and nice as you can be. I
don't cozy up to unwarranted negativity. Not many people do. And yes, sometimes
people are just jerks and there will be times you will need to handle these
characters. Do it with grace and prudence and no one will bat an eyelash. I
enjoy a good, carefully crafted, humorous and appropriate rant as well as the
next blogger but if all you ever do is b**ch and moan, criticizing everything,
you’ve lost me and everyone else.
Remember, it’s great when you receive news
that someone in your network found value in something you shared or even just
that someone thought enough of you tweet hello. Be glad. It means you have a
network of friends amongst the Internet hype.
