I lament about how bad people are at networking. Well, here’s an example from last week:
I’m in a fair number of slack groups.
A few of them are marketing related, and occasionally people share a link or two of theirs. It’s an un-written rule that you only share stuff people would be interested in.
I was recently invited to join a group by someone I really respect, so was more than happy to jump in.
I get in, and start joshing around with some people I know. Good vibes.
One day later, a guy messages me (I had never talked to him before and had no clue who he was) asking to share a tweet of his.
I declined.
It was the kind of guru-shit I mock, plus it was drowning in hashtags. It was a case of “I wouldn’t be caught dead associated with this.”
No thanks.
He then responded with combative verbal diarrhea that included “What goes around comes around. Welcome again in this group!”
—
Morals of the story:
1. If you’re in a group that facilitates networking, remember that networking is “making friends,” not “another warm body I can ask to marketing my shit.”
2. Don’t ever ask people you don’t know to share your shit.
3. Hell, don’t even ask people to share. Make it so awesome they want to share. The name of the game is quality, NOT quantity.
4. If someone says no, accept it. Lashing out is a bonafide sign of immaturity and amateur work, and no one wants to associate with an amateur.
… I legitimate cannot believe I even need to write this.
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