The Social Media Karma Factor

Have you ever had the experience of getting to know another professional at a conference or social lunch who did not observe social etiquette?  You attentively listened to their story and background, asked intelligent questions, and even complemented their business savvy.  Then when it came time for them to reciprocate they became easily distracted, were unenthusiastic, or completely uninterested in you.  It’s the social networking equivalent of spam.  That interaction became a waste for both parties since you will not become an evangelist for this person, and they failed to discover anything unique about you.

Many marketers are making the same mistake when approaching social media. “How can social media help us sell more widgets? How can we increase market share or awareness using social media? What’s in it for us?”  Many marketers think of social media as just another media channel.

People join online communities to make connections not to listen to your brand spam them.  If you want connections and influence you have to build social media karma.  Marketers need to turn their traditional marketing tactics around when it comes to social media: “what can we give through social media? How can we help consumers?” are the questions that need to be asked.  By approaching social media in a give vs. get manner the brand is creating Social Media Karma.

Isn’t this the purpose for brands in the first place: to build social capital, to be more human, and to be more emotionally connected?  In doing-so the brand becomes more profitable and achieves all those sales goals it set out to achieve in the first place.

If your brand is clear, and you are demonstrating social media karma, then consumers will be drawn to you; strangers will become prospects, and prospects will become customers.  Here are three ways to start increasing your social karma in social media:

• Make sure you are contributing valuable content to the conversation
• Initiate relationships with other community members, don’t wait for them.
• Contribute to the community via comments, re-posts, and linking