I recently made it to 5K, but not in running, I reached 5,000 friends on my Facebook page. I have been using my personal page so I could be tagged in photos when I’m out speaking and networking (until recently you couldn’t tag a business page in the actual photo, only people). No bells went off. No special flags or banners. No awards or recognition.
Quite the contrary, everything that happened was negative. I couldn’t accept any more friends requests, even though they were still coming in. I wouldn’t get the validation that I’m engaging new contacts by seeing friend requests coming in.
What’s your goal?
I remember hearing wedding and event pros telling me that their goal was to have more friends than anyone else in their market and category. So, I asked them, what’s your plan once you achieve that? You’re not going to get any awards, so what’s your plan? What are you going to do and say to keep that audience engaged? Isn’t it better to have a smaller, more engaged audience, than a large disconnected one?
What should I do now?
Well, I have a few choices. I have a business page, so I can just point everyone over there, but that doesn’t solve the issue of people trying to add me as a Friend. I’ve already been posting almost everything to both my personal and business pages, so that’s no different. The other choice was to go in and start voting some “friends” off my Facebook island to make room for new ones.
So, I went in and started to “unfriend” people, but when you have 5,000 friends, where do you start? My wife suggested to just unfriend people I don’t recognize. While that sounds easy, clearly way more people know me, and my name, than I might recognize. What surprised me is just how many names, and faces, I did recognize. My criteria became these: Do I recognize your name? Do you have a profile photo (of yourself)? Do we have friends in common? If the answer to all of these is ‘no’, you probably got voted off. If it was ‘no’ to two of three, you might have gotten voted off. Doing this I was able to clear up over 100 slots for new ‘friends’.
OK, so now what?
Well, the first thing is that I’ve become a lot more strategic on whose friend request to accept. Using the same criteria (Do I recognize your name? Do you have a profile photo (of yourself)? Do we have friends in common?) I’m choosing who to vote in. If you don’t have your company or industry on your About page, and there are no industry-related posts, there’s a good chance you’re not getting in. My goal for social media is to connect with other industry professionals, and align my social presence with companies that will provide a mutual benefit for both of us. Hey, shouldn’t that have been all of our goals in the first place? Probably, but somewhere along the way I started accepting almost all of the friend requests that came along. Then, one day (recently) I hit the ceiling. I’m not sure why Facebook decided that 5,000 was the right number, but there it was, blocking any new connections.
What does this mean for you?
The first lesson is to have a plan for your social media presence. My goal was never to have more friends than anyone else. I don’t have my social media links on my website or marketing materials. I only have sharing links on my blog and product pages so they can be shared with your social connections. If you’ve already arrived at my website I don’t want you to go to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or Google+. I want you to contact me or buy something on my site. What’s your goal?
This 5K was not a race, it was a slow and steady climb. It was actually a destination I didn’t want to reach. I’ve always believed that we should enjoy and cherish the journey, every day. Focus on today and how you can provide value to your social connections. In my presentation titled “Can Your Business Survive Without Social Media?” I quote Jay Baer, who blogs about social media “…the goal is not to be good at social media, the goal is to be good at business because of social media”.
Take a step back and analyze your plan for social media. Don’t strive to be the best at social media. Find out how to improve your business through your social media efforts. Both you, and your connections will be better off for it.
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If you’d like to hear or see “Can Your Business Survive Without Social Media?”, you can see a 5-minute sample video, buy the DVD or MP3 here. If you’d like to have me present this, or any of my topics for your group, company or organization, call or contact me directly at [email protected], 732.422.6362 international 001 732 422 6362