So why are so many people on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks not responding to any comments or questions asked of them?   This was a question asked during a seminar I attended last year on ‘how to draw attention to your business needs in the Social Network’.

This question, asked of the presenter of the seminar, got the audience’s attention more than the material offered in the seminar and was provoked by the presenter saying over and over during the workshop that ‘it’s a waste of time to attempt to respond to anyone online since they usually are reaching out to rob you of your time’.  The presenter continued with saying during the class..

“Don’t respond to any comments, remarks or questions from anyone in the social networks unless they have more influence online than you”. 

The presenter was taken back with fining the attitude towards social media and social networking was no accepted.  The attempts to find a balanced answer the audience would accept was futile since the defense to being non-social was to say a number of colleagues are finding this method of  narcissistic style of social networking to be very profitable.

That was then, so how is it now?

In a recent poll of my contacts I asked how they deal with the people in their social spaces who do not make any effort, to anyone, to respond to their post.  I was not surprised to find the remark…‘if you are not responsive to my questions or remarks, why should I have them in my social network?’ …summed up how the over 100 business people I contacted are now handling who they allow in their social feeds.

More and more people are seeing the true value of how being social in the social networks brings more real people into contacting them for what they do professionally.

• Retailers are seeing more people coming into their stores asking to speak to the person they have been socializing with online.
• B2B’s are seeing more phone calls from businesses who decided to use their services because they responded to them in a social network.
• Students and job seekers are finding recruiters are reaching out to them to offer job interviews based on how they represented themselves in the social spaces.

So why are there still so many people and businesses still taking the Non-Social approach to Social Media?

In a rare opportunity I had with flushing out one of the principles of a marketing groups preaching the ‘All About Me!’ method of social networking I found out there are a few reasons reflective to why most of the non-social people are using the social networks.

Following are some of their reasoning’s:

Google Ranking

Many of the people and businesses who pound Facebook and Twitter, and any open space Google can search, with non-social content are ONLY interested in ranking high on the search engines.  This method of internet marketing use to be very applicable before Google, and the other search engines, got tired of providing their customers..me and you..with worthless content.  Now the search engines are starting to wise up and do a better job of ranking people for their ‘relevance’ to the subject and ‘society’ instead of the volume of content the produce.

Inconsideration

On the most part what I was hearing as a ‘good’ reason why there are so many people online unwilling to be social with everyone in their community boiled down to… ‘don’t want to waste time to find out the person being responded to is a ‘loser’.

The word ‘Time’ kept coming up over and over.  True, time is valuable and you can never get anything done if you waste time.  That fact is true and does need to be considered if you are in business.  However, a complete void of social responsiveness is counter intuitive today.

How people go about choosing who they are going to socialize with online is based on how the person they are interested in socializes with is socializing with others.  It is understood not every remark or question can be answered in full sentences.  That is why the social spaces offer a Thumbs Up, LIKE and +1 buttons.  An effort has to be made to remark or respond to as many people in a social circle as possible if someone is going to survive the next purge people are going to make of the ‘Non-Social’ people.

Unknowing

Most people, like celebrities and pro sports stars, have no idea what they are doing online.  They just are told by their ‘handlers’ they need to be on Twitter.  I say most because there are a few who do have moderate social media skills.  Overall..I’ll take a shot at saying over 80%, of the people who just post cryptic updates, or just remarks only their intercircle would understand, do so because they cannot grasp the reach their posts have on the internet.  Millions of people see their update and want to be part of their celebrity.  Making no attempt recognize their fans online will eventually work against them.

The people jumping online thinking all they need to do is ‘post stuff’ to be ‘Cool’ are going to find their following will end up to be nothing but people just like them.  Kinda like being in a room full of mirrors.

Bottomline

Social is Social..there is no getting around it.  It use to be when social networking started that posting promotional information in the social spaces was productive.  Like everything else that results in everyone riding the same bandwagon, the promotional stuff posted in the social networks became so common place it began to be overlooked or taken for granted.

Today, in the failed economy the world is in, the volume of self-centered, narcissistic, ‘what’s in it for me’ and Non-Social content is beyond overwhelming.  People who are out to find what and who they are looking for are feed up with being hit from every side with promotions of all kinds.  Action is being taken that makes people who choose the non-social method of social media truly deserted islands in the red ocean they created.

The bases of the effectiveness of social media is in being ‘Social’.  The days of spamming to success have been long over.  Being social will create the path to profitability.  So why not use it.

Let me know how I can help.