Social Etiquette for Best Business Practices

Todays Social scene happens more Online than offline it seems and this change in Social behaviour has caused many businesses to move their operations onto the web.

Over the years less and less focus has been placed on traditional search advertising and SEO and moved more into the realm of Social Advertising and SMO, along with these changes companies have failed to recognise the need to change their strategies from the aggressive advertising campaigns needed for success in search advertising to the passive marketing methods required for success in the social networks.

The result is they employ teams of affiliates and supply them with aggressive strategies to try to push their sales,even the materials (banners,emails etc) they supply their armies of affliates are aggressive in nature.

They impose timeframes and bonus offers for these affiliates if they accomplish a target set of sales within a given timeframe, urging them to tell everyone they meet about how brilliant their products are or how much money they can make joining the sales force.

The sad fact is that these aggressive strategies are completely wrong for a social market, all that is achieved is a poor conversion rate and a ton of irate and dissillusioned social members sick of having a company calling card flung in their face at first contact and a poorly trained affiliate badgering them to join the offered opportunity often with inflated and imaginary earning potential being used as the sales tool.

Social Networks are just that Social they are comprised mainly of people who want to escape the troubles of the real world and explore new horizons by meeting new friends and learning new skills, the last thing they want to happen is to jump into the middle of a forum or social venue populated entirely of people out to fleece them of their hard earned dollars in the vain hope they will strike it rich overnight.

Companies can sell through a social network but it has to be done correctly, the pitch has to be passive in nature and the members have to be gently guided into viewing the companies offers, this can be achieved quite simply by using a simple but effective social etiquette code.

1. Don't be aggressive................................................Be social make friends have fun and get to know people first.
2. Use your Profile and signature links effectively..Ensure that your profile is fully filled out and you have a linked signature.
3. Don't sell directly on the network......................Set up webinars and events where members can attend your presentation.
4. Provide interesting and informative materials...Don't write adverts write about how something works rather than sell it.
5. Avoid Conflict......................................................Try to avoid heated debates and arguments and be polite.
6. Target your connection requests........................Look for people with similar interests to yourself or your company.
7. Don't badger people for an answer....the more you chase people demanding answers to your offers the more likely that answer will be NO!.

These are only a few of the behaviours companies need to teach their affiliates to use when selling within social arenas there are plenty more that could be added but I am writing an article not a book so need to keep it fairly short.

So what can we do about bringing about change on the social networks ?? well once answer would be to provide the owners of networks you belong to with a set of conditions you the members would be happy with, this can be done as simply as starting a discussion within the community and calling for expressions of what each individual wants to see and expects to get out of that particular community, this will then filter through to the staff of the community and with a little luck they will have the sense to take up the challenge and create and post in plain view a set of etiquette rules for all members to adhere to and empower their moderators and admins to enforce those rules.

Social Etiquette is not hard it's mostly common sense and moral decency,it makes the network a pleasant place for all members and used properly by ethical companies can see sales soar as their reputation is established and cemented in place.