Social Networking ~ Easier than 1, 2, 3…

• Posted on July 11, 2009 at 8:18 am

In the rush to get more followers on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter many people forget an important principle:  The principle of delight.

Bring beauty, heart and delight to your posts.
Social media expert George Kao recommends that you be your likable self. He says that a “sub-principle” of delight could be humor. “People post things that are cute and that are just beautiful on FaceBook and on Twitter. Or they just post something that’s just simply touching, or give people a sense of aliveness.”

Show you care.
The next principle to remember, according to Kao is, care. Care is even more important than delight because if you show people that you care, you’re going to distinguish yourself from everybody else who is focused on discussing themselves. Kao recommends giving people a thumbs up on FaceBook. Comment on their stuff. For Twitter retweet their tweets. Comment on their LinkedIn status updates. Make meaningful conversation. Give compliments.

Be relevant.
You must be both caring and relevant to a person’s business or their career. If you’re not relevant it’s far less likely that you’re actually going to do business together. “Be relevantŠpost about your expertise and your offerings. Share resources with people that are helpful.”

Share resources.
The most important principle of all is to be a 90:10 resource to sales. Keep this in mind when you’re posting. Nine out of every ten postings that you make should consist of sharing resources that are helpful to other people, without trying to sell anything.

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Sell selectively.
One of the ten postings, or ten percent of your total posting should focuse on what you have to offer. “It’s important to talk about what you have to offer because otherwise people don’t know. People forget that you have that offering. So do mention it maybe ten percent of the time,” says Kao.

Practice being your best self.
Finally, authenticity and personal growth are paramount. When Kao posts on FaceBook, he pretends that everything he posts on his wall is public, because it can be. He actually makes it public. “Knowing that it’s public, what I do is I always try to put my best foot forward. What happens, I’ve noticed, over the years is as I put my best foot forward on these public arenas, I actually become more and more like that.

SOURCE: YouTube; George Kao

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