Building relationships: Threats never work

Jack Russell Terrier SnarlingThere’s been so much virtual ink spilled on building relationships on social media sites that one needs to be blind not to run across one article giving a few tips on the matter. Yet some still try their own obnoxious techniques that don’t work anyway.

One trend that I’ve recently notices and got an “oh, really?” from me was the following: add a friend, wait a bit for them to follow back and if they don’t, send them a message saying you’ll unfriend them if you’re unwilling to return the favor. Now how does that threat work? Simply put, it doesn’t.

The reason to friend or follow anyone is that you somehow find them interesting enough. If you want to get their attention, start a conversation with them, ask the right questions to get their attention and make them feel valued and interesting. They then might return the favor.

But if you act like and impatient, self-absorbed nuisance,  they will at best ignore you. Or choose to block you all together or report you. Why risk that when you can spend 5 minutes forgetting about what you want and think of what other people need. They will definitely respond in a much more pleasant manner than they would in the case of virtual blackmail!

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This post has 5 comments

  • Hesham @ FamousBloggers

    You are right , from time to another we should at least try to forget about what we want and think of other, we have to give, I personally think it’s OK if we don’t get a fast return as all what we do is count, but everything has a time!

    Thanks for the interesting read!
    .-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..New Free PDF E-Book about Corporate Blogging and Multi-Author Blogs =-.

  • Alina Popescu

    Hesham, you are right, we need to learn patience and to be less concerned about our own gain. Then we’ll be able to build meaningful relationships, and the return on our investment will be there, no doubt about it.

  • Robin Dickinson

    Hi Alina,

    You make a great point. I guess it comes down in part to one’s strategy on-line. Those who have a ‘volume-based’ strategy tend to use more aggressive follower gathering tactics than those genuinely interested in mutually valuable relationships, who have a ‘value-based strategy’.

    Best to you, Robin :)
    .-= Robin Dickinson´s last blog ..A superb way to motivate your fans =-.

  • Alina Popescu

    Hi Robin, you are right, such people do tend to be more aggressive. But it seems to me they should stop and think: how will such an attitude help them reach their targets? Unless they have thousands of Twitter spammers following them or people who just don’t care and autofollow, I don’t see how they can pull it off…

  • diocelin@SEO München

    This kinds of stuffs usually happens in twitter, which I think is annoying. We should apply the right manners when using social networking sites.

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