More LinkedIn shenanigans…

Accepted friend request, then 5 minutes later received their pitch.

No “Hi Rob, how ya doing”, no “glad to meet ya”

…just a straight out of the gate pitch.

Then when I reject it, they immediately unfriend me.

This is not how it works.

Social media (and that includes LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and others) was created to bring people together in a social environment that creates a culture of engagement through conversation and trust. It was not designed as a way to pitch your product or service right out of the gate. It’s like walking up to some stranger on the street and asking them to buy from you.

You’ll most likely get weird stares, told to get away, maybe assaulted or they’ll look at you as crazy.

But let’s flip the script…say again you are walking down the street and you meet a total stranger, instead of selling them on a product or service, you engage them in conversation and get to know them. Now they are more inclined to want to know more about you. And possibly want to know about your products and services.

Yup, the same concept works for social media. 

Why go through the painful process of friending someone, pitching your product and when they don’t comply, you unfriend them?

Seems silly to me.

Yet, that’s what some of these MLM’s (multi-level marketing), OFTM Clubs (opportunity of the month) and Biz In A Box concepts push on their members. They call it a numbers game. And they tell people it’s not about creating relationships it’s about the sale. The agenda’s of these companies is to garner as much revenue as possible in a short amount of time then disappear. But they sell the concept of a dream, of being a millionaire and having a lavish lifestyle. They tell their members to keep pushing and to not worry about the naysayers or those that aren’t immediately sold on the concepts. 

Ugh, that’s too stressful.

To me, creating a conversation that leads to a friendship would be a better way of building a tribe, don’t you think?