First, I want to give thanks to my friend Fabi for helping me put this site together – actually, I aske d her to help me, but she wound up doing the whole thing for me. She is amazing.
I see this happen all the time. I belong to a few social networks that are specifically geared to entrepreneurs and startups. A new member joins the network and writes the following message everywhere he/she possibly can:
“Hey, I would like to introduce you to my company – we do this, that and the other thing and I promise that we have everything your business needs.”
Or
“Hi, are you tired of the rat race? My company can offer you financial freedom simply by working from home a few hours a day.”
This new member will stay around for a few days, but will eventually stop coming back. These are the same people who complain that online marketing doesn’t work. The problem with these individuals is that they are deploying the same methods that they have perfected with their traditional advertising campaigns. It’s the same exact wording you’ll see on their flyers, and direct mail postcards and in church bulletins. It works find there (maybe) but it’s a recipe for a dismal failure within these communities.
Do not be this person. I strongly encourage you to join as many forums, communities and wikis as you possibly can, but become someone who is valuable. Answer questions intelligently without directly promoting your business. That’s how to generate leads and traffic to your website. It takes a lot of time and effort, but I promise the results will pay off. They are slowly paying off for me.
What do you guys think? What works for you? What completely turns you off when you join online communities?
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Greg,
Cheers to you and Fabi! Interesting information. Online networking is here to stay a while. We might as well get used to that and learn to interact with one another in friendly, helpful and professional ways.
The writing aspect works for me. I love the practice, communication and fun of using words to express new thoughts and ideas. Written words seem more tangible than spoken words, don’t they? More meaningful or permanent.
Insincerity turns me off … On any level. Too many offers are out there to help me get rich at little cost, enhance my life, well being, appearance, health, and on and on and on. They all blend together into one bad ad, especially when searching for topic discussion.
Ads are tolerated, even expected at times. But trolls and cyber space menaces . . . That’s another discussion.
Peace,
Lynn
http://www.lynnslink.com
Hello Greg
And yes I do agree that we are all guitly of over advertising, or promoting the ideas of the messages that companies want us to push. It great to read your thoughts and I do agree with them and that’s why I am trying to correct the process at least within myself. And sometimes that the only place we can ever start.
I do believe that we should be interested in the person Not what we have to offer, as the product nor the opportunities may not be want they are looking for & until others get that concept, we will always have that conflict.
Ken
And let me finish this off by saying that as a 26 yr old you are very insiteful
you will go very far as long as you what I like to say ( stay awake) to the concepts of being real rather than the old model.
Greatness will be yours Greg
Ken
I am amazed with it. It is a good thing for my research. Thanks