At Least ACT Like You Give A Damn

Bill Cammack — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:06:10 +0000

Sean Bohan‘s article, “The 50/50 Rule, Link Love & Reciprocity” starts out like this:

Sean: “The 50/50 Rule is something I started sharing with clients a while back. It’s nothing new or earth-shattering and TONS of individuals and companies are doing it EVERY SINGLE DAY. The idea is simple – to connect in the Social spaces where the users live, you need to spend half as much of your time talking about the users as you do about your brand/product/service/website/effort/whatever.”

This is an intelligent idea. At least ACT like you give a damn. People aren’t being taught this. All they’re being told is that there are new and wonderful technologies available on the internet that they can utilize to make money, and here they come, a-runnin’. I currently have 1,567 followers on Twitter. I’d say I get five (5) new followers every single day. Somebody told these people to put auto-responders on their Twitter accounts. This means that when I go through my emails and follow a few people, I immediately get a “direct message” from them talkin’ ’bout:

Thanks for the follow!

See you on line!

Glad we’re in contact now!

Try my product @ [link]

Give me a break. If you can’t personally manage honestly and authentically responding to a couple hundred new followers on a Social Media site over the course of several months, either hang it up or hire someone to do it for you. NO response is better than a fake-ass automatic response.

Now, I understand why people aren’t being taught what Sean posted about. A lot of “Social Media Experts” wouldn’t know this, because they never meet anybody…. other than clients, marketers and OTHER “Social Media Experts”. When you live like that, there’s no reason to understand the 50/50 rule, because everybody’s pitching everybody. Any time someone opens their mouth, you EXPECT them to talk about their business(es). Unfortunately, when you “network” with people in this fashion, you come off as what you are… a person who’s solely interested in making a buck. *yawn*

How to network properly

I had a really funny situation happen probably a year ago at some “neworking” party, before the social media crowd figured out what I do.

I was minding my business… as I love to do….. Enjoying the “sights of the party” and sipping my drink, when somebody that I knew before that day dragged some guy over to where I was standing.

When I looked at the guy being brought over, I didn’t recognize him, but I *DID* recognize the look in his eye… it was this HOPEFUL look, like “I hope this contact really works out for my business!!! :O”. So I was like “Here We GO!!!” and kept sipping my drink:

Mutual Acquaintance: “Bill… This is whomever”
Me: “Hey. How’ya doin’?” *shakes hand*
Whomever: “Hi” *shakes hand*
Mutual Acquaintance: “Whomever, this is Bill Cammack, blah blah Social Media”
Me: *sipping drink*
Whomever: “I’m doing this startup that blah blah blah”
Me: *sipping drink*
Whomever: “blah blah blah blah blah”
Me: *nodding & sipping drink*
Whomever: “blah blah blah blah blah”
Me: *checking out a chick & sipping drink*
Whomever: “blah blah blah blah blah”
Me: *feigning paying rapt attention & sipping drink*
Whomever: “blah blah blah blah blah…….[finishes long, boring pitch]”
Me: *still feigning paying rapt attention & sipping drink*
Whomever: “……….”
Me: *sipping drink & STILL feigning attentiveness, even though he’s no longer talking*
Whomever: “So…. What do you do”
Me: “I’m a video editor” *sips drink*
Whomever: “……….” *INSANELY CONFUSED LOOK, like the end of the movie Se7en*
Me: *sipping drink*
Whomever: “So….. Why did I need to meet YOU?”
Me: *sips drink* “I don’t know” *sips drink*
Whomever: *walks away, still confused and probably embarrassed*

See, that’s what you GET when your focus is COMPLETELY on what you’re trying to accomplish and not at all on the *PERSON* that you’re talking to. You can expand that to not focusing on the COMMUNITY or MARKET that you’re talking to. If all you’re bringing to the table is your pitch, you are a walking commercial. You are a pre-roll ad. You’re not the actual show. You are a representative of a company… Another brick in the wall.

This is why, even if you’re not naturally inclined to do so, you should apply the 50/50 rule, and at least ACT like you give a damn.

Also, instead of going out like a sucker, like the guy that ran his mouth on and on without knowing a) whether I could/would do anything for his company, or b) whether his company could do anything FOR ME… applying the rule will help you either tailor your pitch specifically to the person you’re speaking to or to SAVE YOUR BREATH when you realize your time and efforts would be better spent pitching someone who will actually be a beneficial business contact.

On top of all that, the guy clowned himself by walking away when he figured out that I was not directly useful to his business. Way to make yourself look like you’re actually networking as opposed to swooping around like a vulture, trying to make a buck. :/

~Bill

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BillCammack.com is now Gravatar-enabled

Bill Cammack — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:58:58 +0000

After stopping by Sean Bohan‘s site this morning, I’ve decided to add Gravatar visibility to the comments on BillCammack.com / DatingGenius. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a picture that you select that’s embedded in each of your comments if you choose:

“A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from blog to blog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on blogs?”

Due to the “Get you in trouble with your girlfriend” nature of DatingGenius posts, I wanted to mention this to my 5-or-so commenters so they won’t get caught out there.

If you would like to set up your own Gravatar, click here to sign up.
To download the plug-in for your WordPress site, click here.

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At Least ACT Like You Give A Damn

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