Social Networking - Relationships - Sales

I've long held the notion that people don't like to be sold - but they like to buy. That's the reason that social networking is such an important part of the sales process.

Almost everyone who participates in social networking activities on the internet are in it to sell something. I know there are rare exceptions, but those are few and far between.

There are many people who will even tell you that they are doing it for pleasure, fulfilment, or other reasons besides selling. Don't let them fool you. Why do you think that people post to sites like HubPages, Squidoo, Mahalo, or other similar sites? Because they love to write? Because they enjoy the relationships they build? No! Some maybe, but mostly it's because of the revenue that they receive when they build traffic and people click on Adsense or buy from Amazon.

Take a look at 10 random blogs. Nine or all ten of them will have Adsense or other advertising on them. People don't put all the time it takes to publish their writing for the sole pleasure of publishing. They do it for the compensation that they hope to receive.

There is nothing wrong with Adsense or Amazon, or many other forms of advertising. I use plenty of advertising, myself. It's impossible for the people who need or want what you've got to find you if you don't advertise. But, it's important to keep a good perspective of where advertising and sales fit in a relationship.

Social networking, when done properly is about building relationships by giving of yourself. It's about extending yourself to other people. It's about being real.

Social networking won't do a thing for you or anyone else unless you learn to give, and your giving must be genuine. If it isn't from a true spirit of caring for someone other than yourself, people will see right through you.

It's not easy to build trust on the internet. Most people don't have the patience for that. That's why we see software programs like Traffic Equalizer, BANS, etc. Many people want to throw a page out on the web with a few keywords and key phrases but no actual content, information, or usefulness. Their sole purpose is to get high Google rankings, develop traffic, and watch people click on their adsense ads, affiliate links, and banners.

Fortunately, Google watches for those types of sites and penalizes them. They don't last long. The same goes for anything else in life that takes no effort. The enjoyment is short lived.

I set up a DirectMatches account, recently, and after the first day, 48 people had messaged me in the system and welcomed me to DirecMatches. Of those 48, only 3 of them had no sales pitch in their message.

Does that mean that the 3 have nothing to sell? Heck No! It just means that they understand the importance of building a relationship instead of bombarding people with sales pitches.

Did I buy anything from the other 45 people. Absolutely not!

So, if you don't understand what's written in the above paragraphs, Stay off my MySpace page. I don't want what your selling, and if I did, I'd buy it from someone else.

You know what? I LOVE to buy, but I HATE to be sold.