Do you really understand what it means to be social?

Constant promotion and marketing of your products and opportunities is not being social.   Just try pulling that at any in person networking event and see how far you get.  This being the internet does not change that.The person who goes to a networking event and constantly talks about their business while shoving business cards in people's faces will soon find themselves ostracized by that group.

Instead of attempting to understand why they have been ostracized they deem the group cliqueish and move on to do the same thing in another group.  If you have ever done offline networking events, you would know that business gets mentioned yes but the majority of the time is spent mingling and getting to know each other.  That is how you size each other up and decide if you want to do business with them.

Most business is done in social settings, not the boardroom.  Business is finalized in the boardroom, but the foundation comes from social events and socializing.  If you don't know how to socialize then you are at a disadvantage.  The Mantra of Know, Like, Trust is true.  

If all you do is talk about your business then no one knows YOU.

IF no one knows you they certainly cannot make a determination of whether or not they like YOU.

If people don't know or like you, you can mark trust YOU completely off the list.

The next time you are tempted to make a snide remark or tell someone they are wasting their time by posting a joke, perhaps you need to stop and think.  That person is socializing, He or she is telling the world that they have a sense of humor.  Most people find a sense of humor to be an attractive quality in the people that they socialize with.  While that person is out there socializing, others are getting to know them and like them and probably even trust them.  Which is going to lead to them doing business with people.  So if you don't like a joke just move on to another post and leave the joker alone because I can guarantee that others will enjoy that joke and quite possibly add that person to their contacts.  And these are the same people who delete your constant promotional messages without looking at them, skip over you blog about your business without stopping etc. But they will look at the joker's next blog post.