If you meet up with a group of friends and they are already chatting with each other, do you interrupt them to start your own conversation?
Probably not, right?
I suspect you would listen to what they were saying and only join in when you felt it appropriate and you had something valuable to add.
If you want to successfully use social media in your business, then you need to do the same online as you would in that offline situation.
Always Spectate
Before you post on social media, you want to pay attention to what’s going on already.
For example, if you join someone else’s Facebook group and the first thing you do is post “buy my stuff”, how long do you think it will be until the group administrator kicks you out of the group?
Not long, right?
People do NOT join social media to be sold to. You need to remember this and respect the reason that people use each social channel. For example, people’s motivations for using YouTube are often very different to checking up on their favourite Facebook group.
Don’t do anything online that you wouldn’t do offline.
If you wouldn’t walk into the pub, split up a conversation and start your own, don’t go online and interrupt someone’s conversation either.
Join the conversation that’s already there. Pay attention to what’s already going on.
