Are You a Social Snob or Too Friendly?

Social networking is all about having contacts (friends, followers, whatever). There’s a fine line, though. If you’d too “exclusive,” your social networking attempt won’t really matter. Your contacts will probably already be supporting everything you do. There’s nothing to gain by being a social snob.

Are you too snobby with social networking? Image: sxc.hu

On the other hand, if you’re too friendly, your social networking attempts can go south quickly. Of course, you want as many contacts as possible…but there’s a catch. You want quality contacts, not just everyone and their mom. If you just accept everyone who crosses your path, half of your contacts will be spam sites, people who fall into your target market at all, and other undesirables. That wouldn’t be so bad if these contacts wouldn’t fill up your inbox, use your profile page to advertise, or otherwise waste your time.

So how many is too many? That depends on your personal preferences, the site or service you’re advertising, and the social networking site you’re using. Personally, a good rule of thumb is to be friends with anyone who is potentially interested in visiting your site, but avoid friends for sheer number purposes alone.

And always remember – along with having quality contact, be a quality contact. Don’t spam others’ profiles with tons of links, send out relevant information if you email people, and avoid requesting to be a contact of people who are of no interest to you whatsoever.