You've heard "Givers gain", "Give to get" and Give to give." Each of those sayings is a variation of the Golden Rule (Treat Others As You Would Have Them Treat You). No where are these suggestions for living so quickly evident as in social media.
If your goal is to utilize social media to have other people and businesses notice, appreciate, and comment on you, then the strongest move you can make is to forget about yourself and focus on others. Start giving comments, compliments, and statements of appreciation.
If you actively comment on others' social media postings, assuming your comments are positive, you will experience the same in return, often by the same people but also by others who notice your generosity.
The actual way you comment varies by social media site. In Facebook, for example, you can type a comment or click the "Like" button. In Twitter you can RT ("Re-Tweet")someone else's Tweet (the syntax, btw, is "RT @someoneelse Whatever they said"). When another Twitterer RT's one of your Tweets, btw, it's polite to thank them (and that also puts you back out in public notice).
A few suggestions for commenting on others' social media content:
- Be consistent in personality, tone and style with your established social media presence.
- Be sincere. For example, if the world knows you're a die-hard Yankees fan, it will look a bit odd if you randomly fall all over comments about other teams with rapid aggreement.
- Stay positive. If your comment on others is negative, you may get attention, but it won't be attention that will help your business.
- If you can't think of something to say, but you do like what someone else said, just express your simple appreciation - that's all it takes for them to feel good.
- Share others' enthusiasm and energy. If you read something that pumps you up or you feel strongly about, jump right in (just stay positive).
This suggestion about commenting on others' content also works well with blogging, though it takes more work.
The bottom line? If you'd like positive comments and attention to your social media content, give it to others. You'll get it back, likely in some (nice) unexpected ways.
