Have you ever gotten a friend request from someone you didn’t know?  Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are all about making ‘friends.’  But what is a friend really?  In recent time’s it has translated into a status symbol for popularity.

First of all, Facebook has a “Friends List,” and in my book, this list is a catalog of people who have raise their hand and said “YES, i would like to interact with you,”  It is not necessarily a list of your friends.

The simple Psychology behind ‘Friending’

We all have a natural desire to make friends.  When someone says “will you be my friend,” its hard to say no.  It appears rude in person.  On Facebook we don’t have eye contact but psychologically, we have a similar feeling.  We don’t want to say no and this allows Friend Farmers to use you as a number.

What is a Friend Farmer?

A Friend Farmer is a person who seeks to add as many friends as possible with no intention of engaging them on a personal level.  In most cases, the intent is to generate a list of people to blast messages via posts or messages or  send repeated friend, fan/like page, and event requests.

So what are some types of friend farmers?

“So and so has so many friends, they must be popular“

I always get a kick out of it when I see I have mutual friends with someone so I say, “how do you know ’so and so’?” And the response is “I don’t, they just added me on Facebook.”  Friend Farmer’s rely on the kindness of humanity and request people to be their friend with no real desire to engage or interact with anyone.

“I’m an Expert: I have (this many) Facebook Friends“

In the social media realm, there are a lot of  ’experts’ around and they are staking their expertise on the fact that they have an account with a lot of friends.  How nice.  Question: If you walked in a room could you recognize most of them?  The answer is usually no, and the reason is that many experts are simply adding friends for numbers to appear more popular.

How to Spot a Friend Farmer

If the purpose of becoming friends online is to engage and interact the the easiest way to recognize a friend farmer is by how engaging they are.

First, when they update their status or post something, how many of their friends actually engage them?  My personal goal is 1 – 2%.  If I have 1000 friends, I would expect 10 to 20 interactions on my postings.  (This is in no way an industry standard, but a good indicator for me of how engaged my friends are).

Second, how often do they engage others?  For every one post, how much time does the person with tons of friends spend engaging (or commenting) on the posts of others?  If you look at someone’s page and all you see is them posting updates and they never comment, in my opinion that’s the equivalent of giving a speech or talking to yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, social networking isn’t about the you.  Its about your connections and how well you engage them.  If your intention is to grow your sphere of influence, be engaging.  Send a personal message with your request, and engage your new friends by commenting on and/or liking what they post.

If your intention is to gain as many friends as possible, remember the popular guy in high school?  Where is he now?

Touching Base With Your Social Media Sphere

So you have all your Social Media sites and marketing methods up and running and you are doing everything by the books to try to get your business up and running.  You got the media and content down pact but don’t forget the “Social” part of your methods.

I often see alot of marketers out there that just focus on building their content up and neglecting other aspects of the Social Media marketing method.  Like our good buddy Seth Godin says “No One Cares About You” that means let go of the vanity issues of your site and blog just for a second and try to get your connections and engagement fresh.

The same method and guideline in keeping your content and backlinks fresh and added daily, the same effort you have to supply in your social engagement within your Social Media Sphere.

What is your Social Media Sphere?

Your Social Media Sphere includes:

• Blogs - Comment on other bloggers in your niche, develop that rapport in your community so you can count on them on commenting your stuff.  Thus ultimately building your exposure and authoritative presence.  Another Simple tip is to try to thank and respond to users commenting on your blog, it makes your readers feel appreciative in commenting more often.

• Social Networks (Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIN, Twitter etc) – This is very important to keep your updates fresh and engagement in tact.  Nobody likes a non-social nomad on these sites.  If you are trying to engage users on these sites and you see nothing but selfish vanity updates that is a sure sign that you will be removed or ignored on these social networks.  Try engaging with people even if its to say thank you, or how are you? People will respond if you engage them and thus making people take more notice to you, get the hint?

• Video Marketing – Make sure your Video community like youtube you constantly try to engage on their as well for your subscribers and commenters.  Again nobody likes a big shot who doesn’t acknowledge fans or subscribers unless your a celebrity.  Reach out and try to comment on other Video Directors in your niche, more than likely they will look you up just from commenting.

These are all simple and common sense tips but lots of marketers don’t take these into action surprisingly.  So go out there and Engage!!

Writer Profile

Justin Williams

Justin Williams is the owner of Social Media Vision and is an avid Tech, Social Media, & Marketing enthusiast.  He is also a fully specialized financial mortgage consultant during the day.  He has been a successful event coordinator for REBarcamp Virginia Beach and loves being a geek at heart.  Justin can be found at http://card.ly/JustinWilliams

Are you using social media to grow your business? I get a lot of questions from business owners and other busy professionals about how to develop strategies for business growth using social media. My goal has always been try to simplify the social networking equation, and through my calculations I have determined that social media can be simply describe down to a three step process that when implemented properly can explode your business online and in person.

Having a well developed social media profile on a website like LinkedIn or Facebook is the first step toward growing your online presence. Before you can attempt to share a single product or service online, you must first be able to sell yourself (branding if you will). Branding yourself as a person first and not a sales robot instantly creates a unimposing medium for your friends and potential customers to become aware of who you are and hopefully what you do.

Blogging is simply a medium for relevant material. And what is relevant is relative to the viewer. First you have to find out what is relevant to your target audience, then you use your blog to convert that material into a format that is attractive to them. The more relevant material you provide, the more your expertise becomes apparent and your popularity grows.

Cycle of Social Media

Finally, you need the website you probably already have. What you don’t know is that unless you have something and/or someone pointing to your website, you’re probably wasting valuable time and money that you put into it. Blogging and social media outlets do the pointing for you. On the surface, they give people a reason to want to know more about you. Beneath, they are a free way to lead the google spiders right to your website.

The key is constantly having your social media trifecta pointing at something of relevance. Your blogs and profiles should always be pointing at your website and vice versa. Constantly be looking for relevant links, events, and other info you can share with your target audience. When they see value in what you have to share, they will also see value in and want to do business with you.

One of the primary methods of referral generation in the sales industry has been word of mouth advertising and the perfect example of how to maximize the  potential of this powerful yet simple exposure tool is exhibited by companies that grow via network marketing.

Though often stereotyped as pyramid schemes or scams, Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) is actually the ultimate example of large companies actually spreading the wealth around. MLM companies actually allow the sales force to generate the majority of the income; income that unlike most forms of income is residual, meaning it recurring as long as the account is open, and/or the customer is paying for the product. The way the sales force is recruited is though word of mouth advertising. Many people find interest in the products or services, and some see the opportunity to generate income while sharing what they have found with others.

The reality however is that the landscape of sales has changed drastically, and direct selling is becoming more and more taboo as consumers are becoming more aware of the power of options and therefore choice in every marketplace. As a result, even the best MLM-ers are turning to social media as a method of connecting with their friends, and potential clients and business partners.

Social Media provides you with a relaxed atmosphere where you can share your life, but also share what you do, because what you do is also a part of who you are. Having a strong social media portfolio is key to establishing an MLM-er as a real person that friends and potential clients can relate to, not a pushy salesperson only concerned with making a sale.  That makes you someone they can connect with by name, face, and profession.  A powerful trifecta of connections!

If you couldn’t tell, Social Media is hot right now! A lot of people are now connected to others via some social media outlet these days. Be it a Social Networking Profile like Twitter or Facebook, a Blog, or even a YouTube Video channel, people are loving this easy and effective way to communicate.

One of the things that makes social media so darned attractive is the fact that it’s usually completely free to use.   Anyone with a little time and patience can set up a Facebook page or a Twitter and immediately start engaging people and sharing info and as a result something amazing is happening: Accelerated evolution!

Free information is making it so easy for people to share ideas, learn, and grow, personally and professionally at such a high rate! Creativity and success are thriving in the social media realm and it can be directly linked to the ability to share information freely and easily!

Recently, Justin Williams and I did a presentation at one of the most well known Social Media Events in Real Estate REBar Camp.  Justin focused on the 80/20 rule of social media which says 80% of your updates should be personal, 20% should be business.  This rule also applies to free information. If your 20% business is filled with rich free information, you will reap the benefit of the 80% personal connection in business!   I can say from experience that the law of reciprocity is in full effect. The more you give away freely the more that will come back to you!   I cannot begin to count the referrals I have gotten from those eager to help me because I have freely shared information with them.  So with all that being said, don’t stop sharing what you know…. freely!

Are you curious about this phenomenon called social media? Social Media is rapidly becoming a primary method of communication and information sharing. With Facebook reporting more than 200 million active users and Twitter boasting growth from 14 million users to more than 21 million users, social media is clearly here to stay.

With the growing popularity of social media, businesses are also beginning to understand that they can use this new communication tool to benefit them professionally: but how? At first glance social media appears complicated, time consuming, and almost pointless. After all, how can you generate business from posting random material about your life?

With all these questions many business professionals are ignoring the 800lb social media gorilla in the room. They know its there, they know its not going anywhere, but they don’t know what to do with it so they’d rather ignore it than deal with it.

That’s where we come in. At Guerrilla Social Media, we make sense of social media by educating our clients about social networking profiles, blogging and how they work in conjunction with your website to establish your online presence. You are not alone we are hear to guide you! Let the journey begin.