I am getting tired of the lack of courtesy people have for others on Facebook. I have blogged about this before but at this point in my life I feel that I need to get more strict on how I handle those who spam on social networks and I suggest that others do as well.
I have initiated a 1 strike rule with an exception. If I get a spam wall post or message from a friend whom I don’t really know I will either unsubscribe from their posts or unfriend them. Most likely, I will unfriend them. I take spam wall posts much more serious than I do messages because wall posts are visible to my entire friends list.
If I do know the person, I will notify them that either they or their account is spamming first and if it continues I will either unsubscribe from their posts or unfriend them.
Many of you need to be more aware of what should and shouldn’t be done on Facebook. Of course some people just get hacked and I understand it is not their fault, but they need to be more careful.
Keep in mind that “unfriending someone” is pretty equal to “untrusting someone.” If what you post online is annoying, what you say in person is going to be perceived as such.
The great thing about social networks is that it is not face to face, so you typically have no problem friending someone you don’t really know and should also have no problem unfriending them. I believe that people need to know that the same social etiquette we use in real life is expected online. In real life you get social cues which help you determine what you can and can not say to a person or group of people. Online, you most likely do not have those cues, so you should be even more careful.
Those of you who are business people using Facebook as a marketing tool remember these things:
1. It’s not polite to force yourself into a conversation in real life to share something off topic, same goes on Facebook.
2. If you do not communicate with someone on a regular basis it is not polite to share how you can help them with your product or service out of the blue. Just because you are a FB friend with someone does not mean they want to do business with you or were even looking for advice from someone whom they do not know. Be a resource to your FB friends, not someone waiting for them to hint their need so you can pounce on them.
3. Do not sent mass messages to your entire list of friends because your message most likely will not be relevant to 90% of them and it will result in your friends being frustrated.
4. Do not invite your entire list of friends to events that may not be relevant to them. I am married with 2 kids and probably do not want to attend Thirsty Thursdays.
Remember that nothing is relevant to all of your Facebook Friends. If you are having a hard time determining what is relevant to them, ask them on your own wall. People will comment back and let you know what they think, plus you are inviting them into the conversation and asking their opinion.
Inviting people into a conversation:
This is the best way for you to engage people online. It is much more difficult for trust to be earned online than it is in person because of the missing face to face element that allows us to have more of an emotional response to the other person. I recommend that if you want to introduce something to your entire friends list that you make it more personal. Do not just paste a link to a generic image or website, create something on your own. Network Marketers are notorious for doing this. They think that the marketing tools that their companies hand to them are relevant to everybody, but they are not. We want to know how a product or service has benefitted you first before you tell us how it can help us.
Once again, if you are not sure how people will respond, don’t just post it, ask someone first. Do you really want to become that person who people unsubscribe because of your posts?
Last thought: Most people see spam posting on Facebook as the lowest form of marketing. If you have the time to spam post online you probably are not doing any business in the first place. There are to many thoughts you open people up to by posting spam on social networks. A busy and successful person does not have time to do this, however they do have time to ask for feedback and invite people into the conversation they are creating around their product or service.