Social Networking: The Person Behind The Profile
No one in the world enjoys being taken for granted, being ‘used’ to suit the goals of another.
This is especially true if there is no mutual satisfaction gained from the relationship.
I also doubt whether most people would tolerate it for long if they had the choice.
Relationship, of whatever sort, involves two way exchange and interaction.
Likewise, networking on a social networking site such as Myspace or Facebook, infers a mutual exchange of ideas, communication and so on.
In other words, a relationship.
In an offline social setting, if someone was to simply walk up to me out of the blue, and say “Hello, I’m Bob”, then give me a business card and an advertisement for his company, I’d be offended.
Yet this seems to happen to me with monotonous regularity lately on Facebook.
I’m more than a consumer – and more importantly from your perspective, You are more than a consumer as well. While ‘numbers’ are important for record keeping and so on, you are not a number either.
You are a living, breathing human being, with ideas, goals, needs and relationships like everybody else on the planet – not just a consumer.
Email spammers have no regard for people receiving their garbage, and I regard a lot of what I receive on social networking sites as spam too!
I can handle the virtual beers, coffee and so on, still chuckle at the throwing sheep bit, but the things that I will delete from my wall and inbox are blatant sales messages when there is no relationship established as such, and porn.
Enough of it, and I simply remove the offenders as friends.
Sooner or later people who constantly post garbage and spam the boards disappear from Facebook anyway, which makes me wonder, why they bother.
There is one stream of thought among some advertisers that it doesn’t really matter if someone doesn’t like you, if they want the product, they will buy.
Not me, I will buy off someone I trust, and who offers quality at a reasonable price over someone I don’t know anytime, online, or offline.
When doing business online I’m even more likely to take this attitude, as the medium itself is so impersonal.
As far as possible, I want to know that the person that I am dealing with, is who they say they are, and can deliver what I pay for…
I sell stuff too, and while I try and make a point of being as open as possible, I do try and safeguard my privacy and that of those close to me.
Having said that, my aim is for people to be confident that what they see here online is pretty close to what they’d see if they met me at a social function, or in a business setting offline.
Is this important to you too?
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Excellent article Allan.
I remember my days in Service Clubs like Apex and Rotary. You joined them for social reasons and to do community work. If you picked up some business on the way through, then that was a bonus because people knew what you did and would approach you. People who joined purely for business reasons didn’t seem to last long.
Social Networking is no different, it’s purpose is “social”. By all means let people know what your business and skills are, but leave it to them to make approaches.
Cheers,
Dearest Allan
I came by for my …Australian blended coffee 🙂
So much truth in all that you write, clear thoughts and perfectly measured emotions in our everyday lives…
Online social networks reflect more or less what is happening in society. The only great difference here is that the users come from all over the world and the offences are of a ‘global’ variety…
Facebook corporation, in their effort to expand as much as possible, have permited ‘throwing sheeps’,’dracula bites’ and the like. Younger users (and oldish ones) like to play, and this can one limit it by the privacy settings up to a certain degree.
I had to give up many applications in order to avoid all that ..jazz
in my inbox and on my page every day.
However, personally I am willing to sacrifice a fair part of my inbox or my fb page with such useless things in order to find those fine people who exist in every corner on earth, whether in fashion week in New York or in a village hit by the tsunami.
And before I forget, a very great THANK YOU dear Allan for your support. And day by day, this coffee picture here has almost gotten me addicted :)))
Hope it won’t be long before we drink a real one! I will make sure I bring you some Blue Mountain, the top variety on earth directly imported from the government of Jamaica by a close associate and friend of mine, just to remind you that every little effort counts and nothing goes lost.
all the best for a lovely Sunday afternoon in beautiful Australia
George Karahalios
your facebook poke buddy from a corner of Europe