As you may or may not be aware of, there are places on the internet called Social Networking Sites or Social Media sites.  Just like coffee houses where people would get together and get caught up on what has been happening in the world today, or staying in contact with business associates, these sites are really for one purpose. To Socialize – to build relationships and truly get to know someone. Not to pitch them on a product or business opportunity.

My first look into social networking was in a meetup group. You can find one local to you by visiting meetup.com online. Great place to find people locally to get to know too.  Anyhow, I joined one of these groups for networking and attended for about 4 months. Made some really nice friends there and shared biz cards, and such. What I observed during this time was that the organizer had one thing on their mind….. To Sell their product and the meeting became all about them. WRONG thing to do…

Social networking Sites and local meetings are to learn about people, what their needs are and help provide that to them. I am in Facebook and the many other sites to see what I can do to help someone else’s life become better. Isn’t this what Networking is all about? I believe so.

If you have struggled in these Social sites, then how about doing this… Start building relationships with your friends or followers, they accepted your friendship to get to know you, not for you to pitch them on a deal or product. So instead of sending your business link, send them to your blog so they can get to know YOU. Do that and you will see a difference in the amount of people you have to talk to who ask YOU what you do.  So the Role of Social Networking sites is to build relationship and a network of like minded people who know that it is all about Referring others to someones product or service. Bringing Value to one’s life.  Practice this, you will be amazed at the results.

Judith